WE'VE barely set foot out of our city centre hotel when we are hit by them - Christmas shoppers. There are hordes on the streets of Edinburgh, laden with bags banging into people's legs, queuing out of the department stores. It takes Mike, the husband, at least ten minutes before he's reached his shopping threshold.

"I can't stand it anymore, let's get out of here," he says.

Edinburgh's German Christmas market provides a welcome reprieve, still bustling, but packed with unusual festive gifts. Eventually we can ignore the pull of the countryside no longer. It takes just over 40 minutes to reach Cringletie House, in the Scottish Borders, the hills rolling in welcome the minute we leave the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Just before Peebles, we turn up Cringletie's sweeping driveway and pull up outside the splendid baronial house. On the way in, we notice the croquet lawn and the lines of Wellington boots in the porch, ready for guests to borrow for a tramp over the hills.

Our room, Stobo, is a home-from-home, decorated in country yellows and terracotta with a dual aspect giving sensational views of the magnificent countryside. On the bed, a teddy bear lays in wait. Mike scoops him up and gives him a hug.

"I love bears," he says, before his face drops. "Put that in the article and I'll divorce you, that's D.I.V.O.R.C.E. I mean it."

We could play croquet, boules or chess, read a book in the extensive library or take a peek at the walled garden, which houses the kitchen's vegetables surrounded by a 400-year-old yew hedge. But, instead, I sip Earl Grey and read the papers while he watches rugby. Bliss. The bear is back on the bed.

Cringletie was designed and built by Scottish architect David Bryce in 1861 on the site of a previous house built by Alexander Murray. The current owners, Jacob and Johanna van Houdt, bought the house in 2003 and set about a major renovation programme, updating the 14 bedrooms, installing a lift for disabled guests (wheelchairs have full access in the house) and unblocking the marvellous log fires. And the hard work has certainly paid off.

Cringletie has recently been awarded four red stars by AA inspectors (red stars are given to the best hotels in each star rating) and was named Scotland's Newcomer of the Year in The Which? Good Food Guide published in October.

The food is superb and is created by head chef, Paul Hart, who has been with the hotel since 2004. He sources most of it locally, the majority of it organic, and concocts contemporary but wholesome cuisine with a French twist. By the time we retire to the lounge bar, complete with roaring log fire, for coffee and whisky, grumpy shoppers are a distant memory.

The following morning, after a hearty breakfast, we head off for Rosslyn Chapel, only ten miles away. We're eager to explore its Knights Templar connections - the soldier monks who, according to legend, were the protectors of the Holy Grail. The chapel features heavily in Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code which means, aside from Glastonbury, thousands of grail hunters have made it their number one destination.

When we arrive, however, the car park is ominously quiet. Wet branches frame a locked gate to the rear and the front door is firmly closed. We are an hour early, according to the opening times. But do we stay or do we go? We decide to leave, but are not too upset. It means we'll have to come back to Cringletie House again.