Overview

We visited Paxton House as part of a tour of the Scottish Borders. We enjoyed a lovely day out with a very interesting tour of the house, which was mostly accessible and very well thought out. Afterwards, we attempted to do the gardens and grounds but even with an off-road chair, it was difficult because of steep hills and wet ground.

Transport & Parking

We arrived by motorhome. The venue isn't far off the A1 and is well signposted. The car park is adequate sized, though there was no separate parking for motorhomes. I didn't see blue badge parking either but the car park is very close to the main entrance.

Access

There is level entry into the shop, which is where you pay or register for the tour. We bought tickets online. There was no information about whether carers go free. I tried ringing, emailing and messaging but got no response, so decided to work on the assumption that a carer didn't need a ticket. It didn't seem to be a problem. The house entry is round the back via a courtyard. There is a lift upto the ground floor of the house and then most of the tour is on that floor. There is a small section of the tour that goes upstairs but there is a video to watch, which was really good, and took exactly the same amount of time as the group were upstairs.

Toilets

There is an accessible toilet but I didn't use it, as I went back to the motorhome and used my own.

Staff

Our tour guide was excellent! She was a fantastic story teller and made us feel very welcome. The lady in the shop was okay but told me I wouldn't be able to take my assistance dog into the house. When I challenged this, she backed down quickly but she maybe should have been better trained.

Photos