Floors Castle

Floors Castle stands above the River Tweed near Kelso in the Scottish Borders, looking out towards the Cheviot Hills. It was raised between 1721 and 1726 for John Ker, 1st Duke of Roxburghe, who had helped bring about the 1707 Union of the Scottish and English parliaments. The design came from the architect William Adam, whose original building was a plain rectangular block set off by corner towers, with separate pavilions serving as stables and kitchens. Its present, more theatrical outline dates from around 1837, when James Innes-Ker, 6th Duke, engaged William Henry Playfair to remodel the house. Playfair crowned the Georgian mansion with turrets and battlements, giving it the romantic silhouette seen today. The interiors were enriched in the early twentieth century by Mary Goelet, an American heiress who married the 8th Duke in 1903 and brought with her a collection of Gobelins tapestries, later set into the ballroom during the 1930s, alongside paintings by Sickert and Matisse. Across the river once stood Roxburgh Castle, where King James II was killed by an exploding cannon during a siege in 1460. Still the seat of the Duke of Roxburghe, the castle and its grounds are open to visitors.