Located on the right bank of the River Tweed, 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Melrose in the old county of Roxburghshire, St. Boswells is also known as Lessuden and lies a mile (1.5 km) southeast of Newtown St. Boswells. It benefits from a post-office, a few shops and a primary school. The brick-built Village Hall dates from 1895. St. Modan's Parish Church was built as a Free Church in 1844; the original parish church lies ruined at Benrig, a half-mile (1 km) to the southeast. St. Boswells Golf Club lies to the northeast. There is also a successful cricket team which plays of the village green.
The village may be named for St. Boisil and was well known for having Scotland's largest village green (16 ha / 40 acres) and for holding the Buccleuch Hunt. Notable buildings include the Buccleuch Arms Hotel, built by the Duke of Buccleuch in the mid 19th C. to accommodate his hunting friends, the early 19th Century pink sandstone kennels of the Buccleuch Hunt (converted to housing 2002-3), the red sandstone villas of the Croft (1870s), Braeheads House (c.1908) by F. William Deas, and Lessuden House (17th century) which has been the family house of the Scotts of Raeburn.
An annual Gypsy Fair takes place on the village green on the 18th July (St. Boisil's Day). This had its origins as a sheep and wool market but evolved into a horse fair. Although not as important for buying and selling horses as it once was, the event still attracts travelling people from across Scotland and the north of England.
St. Cuthbert's Way passes through the village. On the opposite side of the Tweed stand the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey (12th century) which include a rose window and the burial sites of Sir Walter Scott and Field Marshal Earl Haig.
A railway junction between the Hawick and Kelso branches of the Waverley Line was built a half-mile (1 km) to the west in 1850, but St. Boswells Station was in Newtown St. Boswells. The line closed in 1969. There was a former Munitions Factory at Charlesfield, a mile (1.5 km) to the southwest, which now forms an industrial estate.
