Kelso's market square is one of the largest and finest in Scotland: a broad cobbled space fed by four streets, lined with Georgian and Victorian stone buildings that give it a civic solidity lacking in many prettier but more self-conscious Border towns. The Town Hall, at the north side, was built in 1816 and remodelled in Baroque Revival style in the early 1900s — its dome and cupola provide a focal point above the roofline.
The square is genuinely in use rather than preserved for visitors. There are independent shops and a regular market, and on a Saturday morning in summer the place has an unhurried bustle that is characteristic of the Scottish Borders. The Corn Exchange on Woodmarket, a Jacobethan-style building from 1856, is worth a glance for its ornate frontage. The abbey ruins are a three-minute walk east.