After a long, long journey the length of England we arrived in the Scottish Borders, a few miles NE of Kelso. Despite our fears, our route through the wilds of Northumbria was not punctured by any remaining bands of freedom fighters, still squabbling over the rightful placement of the national boundary. Nay, not even by a roving highwayman astride his fearsome steed and armed to the teeth with pistols and cudgel. Our destination appeared, after a couple of wrong turnings, as yet another country pile - this time a beautiful Torridon stone farmhouse, so sturdy and sober it may well have simply grown from the very ground on which it sits, stolid and so, so permanent. The house; a maze of beautifully proportioned rooms such that we almost needed a map just to find our way around them. And then there were the gardens - acres of lawns, shrubs, hedges, orchards, veggies and lake with incomparable views in all directions. A horticultural infinity pool amidst a sea of varied green. The sultry moon rising over the Cheviot like a great glob of lava, erupted from those ancient hills fifteen miles to the south (we waved to England and the end of the Pennines) underlined the sense of solitude here. Silence so complete it’s like being wrapped in a gigantic, cuddly duvet. All to be heard is the birdsong and the breeze that carries it. Bella and Slipper are a cuddly couple, albeit one several times the size of the other. Bella an incredibly affectionate black labrador and Slipper (escapologist, ball stealer and rabbit worrier par excellence), a feisty little Norfolk terrier. Our first challenge was to figure out where to go for walkies. And here’s the thing - Scotland has a ‘right to roam’ which is both a good, and a bad, thing. The good bit is that one is free to go almost anywhere that is not strictly private land. However, that means there are few marked paths and routes, either on the ground, or depicted on maps. So, without local knowledge, planning a route means you risk not being able to follow it accurately. And often that means simply tramping around field edges or trying to traverse the wilds, often covered in dense vegetation making progress very difficult. If, like us, you enjoy walking try and undertake some preliminary research beforehand lest you end up frustrated by impassable woods, bocage or heavily ploughed fields. It was a car ride to gather comestibles, otherwise we would have been subsisting on eggs from the resident hens and bantams. Both Greenlaw and Duns are several miles distant. The former sports a butchers, pub and small convenience store, whilst Duns is a lovely small town with shops, petrol station, cafes and other facilities (nice tennis courts and park) including an enormous school and stunning castle and grounds - in themselves good for a few miles of perambulation. All said and done then, apart from daily saunters around the house and farm, we usually whisked the hounds off in the car to do some exploring - on the Lammermuir Hills, along the Tweed ( Scotland’s fourth longest river), out on the coast twixt Berwick and St Abbs and elsewhere. All under big, big skies and through every shade of green one could imagine. For anyone fortunate enough to follow in our footsteps at this location, here are a few suggestions for walks . . . Across the fields (exit from lower garden gate) to Fogo. Make sure to take the path down the side of Fogo kirk to the river Whiteadder bankside. Lovely picnic spot. Then cross the footbridge and bear left to return just west of Fogo and back to the house. Just short of four miles around. Going west, take the track immediately across the road from the farm entrance. Continue all the way along this lovely track ( great views of the Cheviots) to the minor road and turn right up to the junction with the B road. Turn left and after a couple of hundred metres take a track into the woods. Carry on for about 350m and turn right onto a wide, grassy track. All the way along to a T junnction, turn left and keep following the path as it curves right through the woods. When you reach the B road, turn left and after a few hundred metres, turn right along the road back to the farm. You can also use the same starting track as a way to walk around the old airfield. St Abbs. A stunning piece of headland adjoining a marine conservation area. Start from the little harbour either going south along the coast path to Eyemouth (you can shorten the walk by turning uphill at the sands to Coldingham) or, better still, walk up to the St Abbs nature reserve and around the marked paths - just beautiful. And don’t forget to drop into the Ebb cafe in the harbour for a lovely lunch. Up into the Lammermuir Hills - more barren uplands but lungfuls of fresh air. We centred our walk on the reservoir and up around the surrounding hills via waymarked tracks. Duns and the castle. Duns has all the services you need (great butchers) and a castle. The castle is mostly private but you can walk for several miles around the grounds and up to the hill on the east side for great views over the town and beyond. Melrose and the Eildon Hills. Melrose is a very pretty little town and very ‘cafe society’. You won’t be short of options for coffee and cake. We walked up into the hills via the St Cuthberts Way path (steep !) - fantastic views from the top, over to Galashiels, and just about every other direction. Beware - some of the slopes are steep and covered in loose scree which makes for slippy, slidey progress. The castle at Norham (free entry !). Well worth a look in its own right and, after that, trot down to the banks of the Tweed and follow upstream, back past the back of the village for about three kilometres. Then turn left, away from the river where it starts to braid and bend, through some woods for another kilometre then left again over fields into Norham again. Two weeks flashed by, again, and we do hope to return. The Borders has captured our hearts with its huge skies, rolling countryside, superb roads ( just the job for cyclists), gorgeous coastline, and solid little towns and villages. Kelso was our favourite town (see the cobbled market square, old abbey and the Cobbers Walk) and we never met a less than friendly soul. We are now scouring estate agent listings . . . . who knows ?
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'23 Adventures
January 2024
photosby Bobby ! |