We leave the Europa Buscentre at 11.30am and take the mid-day HSS to Stranraer from where we continue through Galloway and the Lowther Hills to our hotel, at the heart of the Scottish Borders, in Peebles.

After a full Scottish breakfast with time to enjoy the atmosphere of the hotel we travel the short distance to New Lanark - a 200 year old cotton mill village, now a fascinating World Heritage Site and one of Europe’s top visitor attractions. A gentle return trip gets us back to the hotel in mid-afternoon with time to relax before dinner - (gentlemen are respectively requested to wear jackets for dinner).

Sir Walter Scott’s home Abbotford, on the banks of the River Tweed, is our first stop today. Best known as the author of Ivanhoe and Rob Roy, he was also sheriff in Selkirk, our second stop, where we visit his courthouse.

We continue through Hawick and on to see the marvellous red sandstones abbey in Jedburgh before arriving back in Peebles. The Borders is an area rich in local traditions, not least the ‘Beltane Festival’ or ‘Common Ridings’ when around 200 horsemen ride up to our hotel (an added spectacle for this evening on our 16th-21st June tour).

Thursday is market day in Peebles and we take the opportunity to enjoy this local attraction. You are free to do so in your own time while a short visit to nearby Kailzie Gardens and Art Gallery is organised for the afternoon.

Rosslyn Chapel has always been a popular stop on any Ulsterbus tour to the Borders, even before it found fame in the best selling ‘Da Vinci Code’. We call here en-route to Edinburgh where we spend the rest of the day exploring Scotland’s stunning capital city.

We commence our return journey just after breakfast, retracing our outward route to catch the afternoon HSS from Stranraer to Belfast, arriving back at the Europa Buscentre at around 5.00pm.