Does it cost anything just to drive up and take photographs of the surrounding area. Not interested in going into the tower. Many thanks.

Only to comment on the Smailholm Tower. I read a couple German and one Dutch reviews of their visit - one noting that the place is 'not spectacular". I am a direct lineal descendant of the man who first built the place. For us, it is the Pringle Tower and was the principle family home for ~200 years, ending at the end of the 16th century. I wanted only to note that this was a private home, designed not to entertain visitors from the continent but to protect loved ones from a rough and dangerous environment. It served as protector to my blood and now deserves - in decent respect to its service - some greater appreciation of its purpose than these reports faintly suggest. Read a little about The Reivers of the time and you will come to a greater appreciation of why the Pringle/Smailhom Tower doesn't resemble Neueschwannstein or even Schoss Fuschl am Fuschl See. Es tut mir sehr leid dass mein Deusch ist so schwach and ich habe schwierigkeiten Woerten richtig zu buchstabieren.