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Travel Destination - In the heart of the Scottish Borders, Melrose is the perfect holiday destination for, walking, cycling and rugby. Melrose also boasts some of the best salmon and trout fishing in Scotland. Visitors to Melrose are drawn by a range of attractions. Best known is the ruins of the Melrose Abbey, which lies on the north east side of the centre of the town (and, off course the 'Hunderprest' vampire that roams the ruins at the dark of night.).

Melrose Abbey was founded by a colony of Cistercian monks in c.1136. Although this was one of Scotland's wealthiest monasteries, it suffered badly in the wars that ravaged much of the Scottish Borders in the medieval period. The magnificent rebuilding of church in the late 14th and early 15th centuries was a result of damage caused by the English in 1385. The 16th century Commendator's House is now a museum and the Chapter House contains the burial casket of a heart, thought to be that of King Robert I The Bruce. A considerable portion of the abbey is now in ruins. These lichen-covered ruins, among the most beautiful in Europe, are all that's left of the ecclesiastical community

There is an eerie story that tells how the monks of Melrose Abbey saved the town from dark specter that had been plaguing the inhabitants for some time. The Vampire of Melrose was, during his lifetime, a chaplain to a lady who lived nearby. The chaplain was fond of all manners of sin and vice. He was then nicknamed 'Hundeprest' meaning 'Dog Priest'. This appellation was given to him because of his favorite sport of hunting on horseback followed by a small pack of howling hounds. ("Other things he also loved that made not for sanctity, and when, at last, he died, his death was no more holy that his selfish, sensual life had been.' Stories of the Border Marches John Lang) .)

When he died, he paid the price for his wrong doing as his soul could not find peace. The ghastly form stalked the streets at night in search of blood, terrifying the locals. The town's people turned to the church for a solution to their plight and the monks sought to answer their pleas. They prayed, fasted and challenged the ghoul, eventually defeating it. The monster's corpse was thrust into a fire, reducing it to ashes that were then carried by the wind over the Lammermuir Hills to the north along the Scottish borders.

Sometime after his death, it was said that he tried to enter the Melrose Abbey at the dark of night in the form of a winged bat and turning

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