Melrose Abbey

Melrose is a partially ruined abbey dating from 1136, started by Cistercian Monks at the request of King James I of Scotland.  Like many other sites it is now managed and maintained by Historic Scotland, and you pay to enter and get an "audio tour" device to carry around which guides you around the site at your own pace and explains what you see.

Melrose Abbey claims the "most famous gargoyle in Scotland", which is on the gutter of the main roof (next photo).  It is supposedly a bagpipe-playing pig, although I found I needed a bit of imagination to see the bagpipes:

The bagpipe-playing pig gargoyle

There is a story that the heart of Robert the Bruce is buried here at Melrose.  His friend Black Douglas promised Robert he would take Robert's heart to Jerusalem when he died, but Black Douglas got distracted by some exciting opportunities in Spain on his way to Jerusalem, and was killed there so the heart never made it.  It is believed to have eventually made it back to Scotland, to be buried here.  In 2014 we found ourselves at that place in Spain where Black Douglas was killed: Teba.

Teba, Spain, where Black Douglas died carrying Robert the Bruce's heart