In about 1113, David I invited Benedictine monks from Tiron Abbey in northern France to establish a house at Selkirk. By 1128 the monks had relocated to Kelso, close to David’s new castle at Roxburgh across the River Tweed. Kelso’s proximity to the English border left it vulnerable to attacks, particularly from the outset of the Wars of Independence in 1296. A final attack in 1545 saw everything destroyed except for the fragment of the abbey church that survives today. The abbey remains closed, but you can view the church from the site’s grounds.