the Cheviot Hills
Walk 6 A Border Foray over White Swire
Walk 7 The Lure of the Hen Hole
Walk 8 The Schil, Guardian of the College Valley
Walk 9 To the Changing Summit of Cheviot
Walk 10 By Clennell Street to Windy Gyle
Walk 11 A Walk into the Sixth Century BC
Walk 12 By the ‘Clattering Path’ to Iron Age Forts
Walk 13 A Redundant Reservoir to Celtic Hilltop Forts
Walk 14 In the Footsteps of Agricola’s Legions
Walk 15 The Iron Age and the Romans Inspired this Walk
Walk 16 Border Line and Miners’ Road over Carter Fell
Chapter 2 Tweeddale and Teviotdale
Walk 17 A Sea View Figure-of-Eight
Walk 18 Two Castles and a Keep
Walk 19 A Walter Scott Connection
Walk 20 Dryburgh Abbey and the Winding Tweed
Walk 21 Three Peaks (Trimontium) above Melrose
Walk 22 Three Brethren and Border Mischief
Walk 23 The Cheese Well and the Bear Gates of Traquair
Walk 24 Venerable Beech and Waterloo Monument
Walk 25 An Iron Age Fort, Roman Signal Station and Covenanter’s Pulpit
Walk 26 A Druids’ Stone Circle, Castles Most Sombre and a Rail Bed
Walk 27 ‘Bundle and Go’ – a Reivers’ Cry
Chapter 3 Ettrick Forest
Walk 28 In Search of an Army’s Pay Chest
Walk 29 Pele Towers and an Italian Balloonist
Walk 30 Fair St Mary’s and Literary Giants
Walk 31 ‘That’s the Way for Billy and Me’
Walk 32 A Drovers’ Way
Walk 33 ‘A Glacialist’s Walk’
Walk 34 The Ettrick Horseshoe
Walk 35 By Forest and Fell over Ettrick Pen
Walk 36 An Eagle’s Eye View of the Moffat Water Valley and the Tweedsmuir Hills
Chapter 4 The Tweedsmuir Hills
Walk 37 Two Dramatic Waterfalls
Walk 38 Dark and Deep Loch Skeen
Walk 39 A Waterfall, a Loch, a Gorge and Surrounding Summits
Walk 40 ‘A Walk on the Wild Side’ – 9000 Years Ago
Walk 41 On the Edge of Blackhope’s Glacial Glen
Walk 42 A Walk of Two Halves – Equally Appealing, Distinctly Different
Walk 43 Broad Law – the Borders’ Highest Mountain
Walk 44 Broad Law plus Cramalt Craig
Walk 45 A Walk Through Time
Walk 46 Benign Surroundings Hide a Dark and Dangerous Past
Chapter 5 Long Distance Walks and Town Trails
The Pennine Way
The Alternative Pennine Way
The Southern Upland Way
St Cuthbert’s Way
The Borders Abbeys Way
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Kelso
Jedburgh
Melrose
Galashiels
Selkirk
Hawick
Appendix 1 Glossary
Appendix 2 Bibliography
Appendix 3 Useful Information
Appendix 4 Summary of Walks
INTRODUCTION
Grey recumbent tombs of the dead in desert places,
Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moor,
Hills of sheep, and the homes of the silent vanquished races,
And winds, austere and pure.
R L Stevenson
The Border Hills and Southern Uplands
Between England and Scotland lies the solitude of an upland area which, though neglected by rambler and mountain walker alike, offers to both a wealth of adventure. Although linked to the north of England and the Lothians of Scotland, this area has, because of its geographical seclusion and its history and tradition, retained its own distinct identity. The Borders region of Scotland (comprising the districts of Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, Ettrick and Lauderdale, and Tweeddale) and the northern fringes of Northumberland constitute the landmass known as the Borders covered in this guide. The population is around 120,000, the majority of whom reside in small towns and villages of which only 14 have more than 1500 inhabitants. This makes the area the second most thinly populated part of Scotland and certainly the most thinly populated part of England. The average space per head in the Borders is one person for every 11 acres, compared with an overall average for Scotland of less than four acres per person.
The fertile farms in the straths (valleys) of the Tweed and Teviot have fostered a fine arable and stock tradition, while the surrounding hills have a reputation second to none for breeding and feeding sheep, proudly producing named breeds such as the Cheviot and the Border Leicester. Allied with the agriculture are twin spin-offs: quality textiles (the shrinking mainstay of the local economy) and food
