For many travellers Moffat is the first Scottish town they stop in, a few minutes off the A74(M) after the border. It's a good introduction. Moffat is a handsome market town of about 2,500 people at the head of Annandale, with a broad High Street, hills all around, and the air of a place that has been looking after visitors for a long time.
It has, in fact. In 1633 a sulphurous spring was found in the hills above the town, and Moffat became one of Scotland's first spa resorts. Robert Burns came for the waters (and the bars), and the Victorians piped the smelly water down to a bath house that is now the Town Hall. Before the spa came wool. A bronze ram tops the Colvin Fountain in the middle of the High Street, and the town still makes its own Moffat toffee. The Star Hotel on the High Street, only 20 feet wide, was once listed by Guinness as the narrowest hotel in the world.
The best of Moffat is outside it. North of town, the road to Edinburgh climbs past the Devil's Beef Tub, a huge hollow in the hills where Border reivers hid stolen cattle. Northeast, the Selkirk road runs up the Moffat Water to the Grey Mare's Tail, one of the highest waterfalls in Britain, and the wild lochan above it. The Southern Upland Way passes nearby at Beattock, and the Annandale Way follows the river to the sea. Moffat is also an International Dark Sky Community, with a public observatory.
The nearest railway station is Lockerbie, about 15 miles south. By car, Moffat is a little over an hour from both Glasgow and Edinburgh and makes a quiet first or last night in Scotland. Dumfries and Biggar are within easy reach.