The tail end of last year we had a little trip down to the Scottish Borders for a few days. We stayed in Gibson Park Caravan Park in Melrose and also took a day trip to Kelso, here is our story:
Firstly our day trip to Kelso by bus from Melrose. It was a day of changeable weather with a few showers here and there. We got off the bus at East Bowmont Street and headed to a little cafe in Horsemarket for a morning coffee before heading out for a walk around the town centre:
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| Market Square, Kelso |
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| Cross Keys Hotel, Kelso |
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| Moira in Kelso |
It's not a big place Kelso so it didn't take us too long to wander around the town centre. The highlight for me in the town centre was Rutherfords Micropub (next door to The Cross Keys); we didn't go in but it looked an interesting little establishment.
We then wound our way down towards the river, passing by Kelso Abbey:
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| Kelso Abbey |
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| The Ruins of Kelso Abbey |
Just past the Abbey there is a bridge over the River Tweed which provides some good views back towards the town:
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| River Tweed, downstream from Kelso Bridge |
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| River Tweed, upstream from Kelso Bridge |
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| Kelso from the Bridge over the Tweed |
After enjoying the views of Kelso and Floors Castle (in the distance) we came back off the bridge and headed along Mayfield Riverside Walk:
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| Kelso Bridge from Riverside Walk |
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| Mayfield Riverside Walk |
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| Nice House by the River Tweed |
It was a pleasant enough walk but I expected to see a bit more wildlife along the side of the river. There was only a Heron and a couple of Mallards, but I did manage to capture a little Robin singing in a nearby bush:
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| Robin on Mayfield Riverside Walk |
When we arrived back at the town centre we stopped for as bite of lunch in The Cream Chimneys cafe, which was nice'n'tasty. After lunch we went for another little walk exploring the North side of the town before heading back to Melrose on the bus:
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| North Parish Church, Kelso |
The following day we got up bright and early and after breakfast we met up with my friend David for a cup of tea/coffee in the Abbey Mill Cafe in Melrose. It was a beautiful morning, so after a good chinwag we headed out for a walk along the river towards Tweedbank.
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| The Cauld at Melrose |
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| David by The Tweed in Melrose |
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| The Tweed, upstream of the Cauld in Melrose |
The cauld (or weir) was originally built back in the 17th century to divert water from the river to the Abbey Mill via a lade. The water powered the mill wheel which ground corn to make bread for the monks at Melrose Abbey.
Just upstream from the cauld we enjoyed watching some Goosanders battling against the flow of the river in order to search for food. There was a pair of female Goosanders (commonly known as "Redheads")..........
..........and a solitary male Goosander, resplendent in the morning sun:
We carried on upstream and uphill, enjoying the elevated views:
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| Looking down on the Tweed at Melrose |
We then return back down to a low level path, where the autumnal views were just as good:
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| Alongside the Tweed at Melrose |
Here we passed a Heron, perched on the edge of the opposite bank.......... it was either concentrating very hard or sleeping:
We carried on along the riverside path until we reached Lowood Bridge, where we headed off the path and up towards Tweedbank Railway Station.
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| Lowood Bridge, near Tweedbank |
At Tweedbank David caught a train home to Galashiels and we headed to Herge's Restaurant for a bite of lunch.
Herge wasn't in but we did meet his friend Tintin (who I thought was a bit boring, I'd even go as far as saying he was wooden):
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| Tintin (no Snowy I'm afraid) |
Apologies if this means nothing to you! Just check out some Tintin cartoons.
After lunch we walked back to Melrose and relaxed for the rest of the day.
The following morning we decided to explore some of the areas of Melrose that we hadn't been to before, starting with a walk to the village of Darnick on the outskirts of Melrose. It was a chilly morning but the sun was out, making the Autumn colours even more spectacular:
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| Autumn Colours in Melrose |
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| The Path to Melrose Parish Church |
The walk to Darnick was very pleasant and the village itself quite pretty, I didn't take many photos though, apart from this one of an old tractor at the entrance to Darnick Farm:
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| Entrance to Darnick Farm |
Passing through Darnick Village took us back on to the main road in to Melrose, so we headed back that way.
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| Entering Melrose |
I was impressed with the mini-castle Melrose sign; lets you know the place is posh even before you enter.
As we headed in to Melrose we got some nice views of the Eildon Hills:
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| Eildon Hills |
There are three peaks to the Eildon Hills (but you can only see two from this direction), hence why the Roman Fort at nearby Newstead was called Trimontium.
As we reached the junction at Gibson Park we were treated to more Autumnal views:
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| Looking towards Melrose High Street |
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| Lovely Trees |
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| More Autumnal Views |
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| Path Alongside Melrose RFC Ground |
After a spot of lunch in the motorhome we then decided to go for a walk along part of St Cuthbert's Way which starts from Melrose and goes all the way to Lindisfarne in Northumberland. The walk takes several days so starting off mid-afternoon there was no way we were even going to complete the first leg of the walk (lucky if we could complete the small toe of the first leg).
The aim was to get as far as we could up to the saddle between the Mid and North peaks of the Eildon Hills. We headed through the town, along Dingleton Road then joined the start of St Cuthbert's Way. Our first obstacle was a slippy wooden bridge over the Malthouse Burn, up a muddy track and then we reached a few steps:
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| Moira on Steps up to Eildon Saddle |
After battling our way up the steps, which seemed to go on forever, we reached a muddy slope full of slippy boulders. It was so slippy that we had to stand aside whilst a young women being dragged downhill by a Labrador pub went skidding past (I kid you not!). At the top of the slippy slope it was less steep so we stopped for a breather and to take in the views:
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| Southern end of Melrose |
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| Melrose and The Abbey |
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| Towards Newstead |
The path then started to get steeper again and Moira chose not to go any further, i on the other hand decided I would head up a little further to see what it was like further along the path.
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| The Path up the Eildons |
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| Ready to brave the Ascent |
I got a little higher up (not much) before deciding that I was not going to make it up to the saddle and back down before it would be starting to get dark. I also thought it would be unfair to leave poor Moira halfway up the hill. So I took a couple of photos (and a video of some crows) before heading back downhill:
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| View from (halfway up) the Eildon Hills |
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| Sun starting to set on Eildon Hills |
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| Heading back down from Eildons |
I met up with Moira and we braved the slippy, muddy slope back downhill, without the assistance of a sled-dog. We then headed down the slippy steps to the bottom, where I tried my best to get a video of what I thought was a Red Squirrel up in the tree canopy:
It turned out to be a Grey Squirrel, so I didn't even get that right!
Our bid to conquer the Eildons and capture some exotic wildlife had failed miserably........... never mind we did walk a very short part of St Cuthbert's Way, got some nice views and had a bit of a laugh!............ so not a complete disaster.
Here's to some new adventures in 2020.
Cheers
Teddy Edwards
