Tootling along the Tweed

Last week I had a couple of days to myself down in Peebles and took the opportunity to go for a few walks in the area.
My first walk was a reasonably leisurely stroll from Tweed Bridge in Peebles heading upstream along the side of the river to Manor Bridge where I returned by the high road past Manor Sware and back to Peebles.


Tweed Bridge at the start of the walk

My first encounter with wildlife was a family of mute swans on the river near Hay Lodge Park, there were two adult swans and three cygnets that were almost fully grown:


Mute Swan cygnets and adult

Although you could argue that swans such as this can be reasonably tame and not consider them as wildlife I can assure you that if you get too close to the cygnets the adults will soon let you know they are 'wild' alright. Anyway they are one of the few wild birds that people can get close to and are one of the first wild animals that a child learns to recognise, so good on them!
A little further up the river the nice even tarmac path disappears and you are now on a rougher (and muddier) track that edges its way under through the gorge under the rocky outcrop on which Neidpath Castle sits.



Neidpath Castle

Just after Neidpath there is a bend in the river which is surrounded by Scot's Pine and this is a favourite fishing spot for some anglers (the Tweed is renowned for its fishing and is commonly known as the Queen of salmon rivers).


Fishing on the Tweed

After you pass through the gorge the path passes through an open area of wild grassland which (even in September) is full of wild flowers and plants. Where there are wild flowers you can bet there will be insects (which I know you all love!!):


Meadow Cranesbill with Sawflies



Common Knapweed with Drone Fly

At the end of this wildflower meadow is a disused railway bridge that crosses the Tweed. This was the line that run from Symmington (where it branched off the main Glasgow/Edinburgh to Carlisle line) and passed through Biggar and Broughton before reaching Peebles west station. The Caledonian Railway run the 'Tinto Express' along this line from Edinburgh, to compete with the North British Railway's 'Peebles-shire Express' which came through Leadburn and Eddleston. It was a longer journey from Edinburgh on this line, but it was a favourable line if you were coming from Glasgow. The line was closed to passengers in 1950.


Old Railway Bridge across the Tweed

At this railway bridge you go up the embankment and join the old railway line which is now a path, which is pleasantly edged with wild plants and flowers:


Path along Old Railway Line

Hover-fly on Knapweed



Umbellifer seeds (possibly Cow Parsley)

Walking along the pathway you could tell it was the end of Summer and the start of Autumn by the fact that the Rowan berries were bright red, the rose-hips were a lovely orange and the pods on the Broom (which had lost all its lovely yellow flowers) were starting to dry out and pop in the heat of the sun.


Broom with popping pods

At the end of the railway path you reach Manor Bridge, which crosses the Tweed and heads into the Manor Valley (which is a great place to visit and definitely a subject for a future blog post). Once over the Manor Bridge I turned left and headed back towards Peebles on the other side of the Tweed. At this point you have to go over the Old Manor Brig, which crosses Manor Water just before it joins the Tweed. I knew it was called Old Manor Brig, because the signpost told me so:



Old Manor Brig

As you can see it was built just after 5pm and they didn't bother to straighten the walls as they were in a hurry to finish by tea-time.
You start to climb up hill now as you go along the old road to Manor Sware, looking back down the hill you get some great views of the start of the Manor Valley and the surrounding hills:


View towards Manor Valley

At the top of the hill I stopped at a convenient picnic table where I had my lunch. It was certainly a table with a view (that's the new Manor Bridge in the background)


Table with a view sir?

After lunch I headed into South Park Wood to pick up the trail back to Peebles (no I didn't meet Cartman or Kenny!..... but the sign made me giggle anyway):

Once in the woods I came across the age old dilemma of finding three tracks with no sign telling me which one to take. So I used my initiative and decided to take the centre track as it was the widest and most used, hence it must go to Peebles............20 minutes later I arrived at the picnic area where I had had my lunch. Second time round I looked at my map and took the correct track on the right.
In the woods there were a few items of interest such as the fungi that was growing there and there were also a family of buzzards soaring overhead but I did not have my camera with the zoom lens on it so I could not get any decent photos. I did however get a photo of a Peacock Butterfly that was in a torpid state sitting on the path in front of me. I moved it to the side so that it did not trodden on and it immediately flew away (just as well I snapped it before it left):


Peacock Butterfly

At the end of the woods I crossed a stile and headed over a field towards Peebles. There was no danger of treading on a butterfly here, the obstacles were a lot larger, softer and smellier...........


Cow Pat

Coming over the field I could see my destination in sight (although I did keep one eye on the ground in front of me as well!):


Peebles

After a few manouvers around South Park Industrial Estate I found myself back on the path alongside the river, this time on the opposite bank. My friends the Swans came to see me again:


Mute Swan family

It had been a great walk and although it was a nice sunny day for most of the walk I was not too hot. I certainly didn't even consider going on the deep, cauld water???

I hope you all enjoyed going on the walk with me today.
The following day I tackled Minch Moor and you can read about that in my next blog posting.

Take care

Teddy Edward