Gordon Arms, Mountbenger

Built c.1780 as a coaching inn with additions in 1820 – it was on the Edinburgh to Stranraer route. In the mid 1940s the public rooms were re-fitted and on the left is the public bar with a bare wood floor. It has a three-sided bar counter with a distinctive front of a 1950s style and three shuttered openings that can rise and fall and are still intact but no longer used. The counter had been painted and in about 2005 it was returned to its original (light oak) wood finish. Note the bell push in the pillar between bay one and two. The gantry looks more 1960/70s but is painted a deep red colour so not easy to date – it has some glass shelves in the top section, wooden shelves below and there is a modern brick fireplace with a log burner.

The left hand bar was the original public bar and accessed via a door on the left (in old photographs) that is now a window and about 20 years ago the doorway was cut through the wall to the right former residents bar. The right hand bar has a single bay still working shuttered bar counter that is also intact and has a beaten copper top. Note the bell push on the left side of the counter. There is a new brick and slate fireplace with a log burner. There is a dining room at the rear with old dado panelling painted a sage colour and an old wood surround fireplace with wood burning stove. It can be used for folk music concerts.

It claims many famous visitors such as Sir Walter Scott – there is a plaque “At this inn, in the autumn of 1830 Sir Walter Scott and the Ettrick Shepherd met and parted for the last time” - & James Hogg (Robert Burns stayed here and there is a plaque on the wall, R L Stevenson? And Wordsworth wrote poems about the Yarrow Valley etc.)