a highly poisonous snake and can occasionally be seem in the Cheviots basking on a warm rock before slithering off to hide in the bracken.
Sounds that are music to the hill walker’s ear are provided by two fascinating moorland birds. The distinctive curlew (whaup), with its curved beak and plaintive cry, together with the clown of the fells, the peewit (green plover), are both evident in satisfying numbers. Another interesting inhabitant of the heather moors is the short-eared owl, which sleeps at night and hunts for voles during the day.
With the encroachment of fast-growing pines, larch and spruce, the deer population has greatly increased in recent years, as has the number of stoats, weasels, feral mink and, thankfully, woodpeckers.
Lochs and Coastline
Three natural lochs, St Mary’s Loch, Loch of the Lowes and Loch Skeen, together with the reservoirs of Talla and Megget, are stocked with trout and inhabited by seabirds. The many burns provide a regular diet for the stately heron and fine sport for anglers, and are home to the ring ouzel and the cheeky little dipper. Three lochans on the northern edge of the Cheviot range also act as staging posts for huge numbers of migratory birds and wintering wildfowl, such as greylag and pinkfooted geese.
The cliffs of St Abb’s Head are home to thousands of fulmers, common gulls, razorbills, kittiwakes, shags and puffins, and the clifftops support a carpet of interesting plants. Further and more specific details can be obtained from the information boards displayed on the walks and from local tourist information centres.
History – Time Charts
| Physical | |
| BC | Significant Events Affecting the Area |
| 500,000,000 | Silurian Era: A huge earth movement joined the land masses bearing Scotland and England. |
| 400,000,000 | Devonian Era: Red sandstone and Cheviot lava. |
| 350,000,000 | Carboniferous Era: Calciferous sandstones as found in the Merse of Berwickshire; volcanoes, e.g. the Eildon Hills. |
| 12,000–10,000 | Retreat of the ice sheets. |
| 9000 | Invasion by trees and shrubs, moss and lichen, and other open-ground vegetation. Tundra conditions. |
| 7000 | Significant rise of the North Sea, with the land bridge to the continent severed, forming raised beaches. |
| 6000 | Forests of broadleaved woodland and areas of scrub grew below 2500ft (762m), reducing and replacing areas of coniferous forest. |
| 4000 | Elm tree decline, allowing infiltration by ground vegetation into forest clearings. |
| Human | |
| BC | |
| 6000–3000 | Mesolithic Period: Penetration of settlements along riverbanks, e.g. Rink Farm near Galashiels, Kalemouth and Springwood near Kelso. |
| 3500–2500 | Neolithic Period: Saw the introduction of a basic form of agriculture. |
| 2500–2000 | Development of a hierarchical society in which ceremonial objects such as polished stone axes and maces were made. |
| 2000–1250 | Introduction of new types of ceremonial sites such as beaker burials, individual burials in cairns and cists (stone coffins). The erection of stone circles and standing stones, e.g. Five Stanes Rig, Ninestane Rig and Threestone Burn. |
| 1750 | Bronze Age technology introduced into the Borders. |
| 1500–700 | An age of open settlements and field cultivation together with hilltop meeting places, e.g. the Eildon Hills and the heights surrounding the glen of Heatherhope. |
| 700–500 | Iron Age technology, ring ditches, horseshoe houses with palisaded settlements, e.g. Hownam Rings. |
| 500–200 | Iron Age fortifications, with the development of arable and livestock farming, e.g. Glenrathope and the Street. |
| AD | |
| 80–105 | Roman occupation of the Borders – Flavian’s cohorts established at Trimontium, Melrose. |
| 140–180 | Antonine occupation of the Borders – HQ remained at Trimontium, Melrose. |
| 205–212 | Severan’s Roman campaigns. |
| 400–550 | With the Roman withdrawal a period of tribal warfare, followed by early Christian crusading by the Celtic communities, e.g. the Yarrow Stone. |
| 550–1015 | Northumbrian political and religious domination of the eastern and central Borders. Monastic settlements established at Jedburgh, Old Melrose and Coldingham. |
| 1015 | Battle of Carham; Berwickshire and Teviotdale incorporated into the kingdom of Scotland. |
| 1128–1140 | The four great Border abbeys of Kelso, Melrose, Jedburgh and Dryburgh were completed in the reign of David I of Scotland. |
| 1124–1603 | Continuous conflict between England and Scotland, during which the Borders were trampled underfoot by the armies of both sides. When they had passed through, the reivers (fighting families) on both sides of the Border were at each other’s throats. The reiver had no loyalty save that of a blood relationship. Reiver strongholds were the pele towers such as those at Smailholm, Newark, Dryhope, Kirkhope and, the bloodiest of them all, Hermitage. |
| 1603 | The Union of the Crowns, after which there was a 100 year period of pacification before peace and prosperity came to the Borders. |
River Tweed to Caddonfoot overlooked by Neidpath Hill (Walk 22)
Derelict fort at Yeavering Bell (Walk 1)
Public Rights of Way
This is a grey and troubled area, and it is not within the remit of this guide to go further than state the four criteria needed to establish and maintain a public right of way.
1 It must have been used by the general public for a continuous period of 20 years.
2 It must have been used as a matter of right.
3 It must connect two public places.
4 It must follow a route more or less defined.
The law of trespass differs in England and Scotland, especially with Scotland’s ‘Right to Roam Law’ imminent at the time of this edition’s update, and this guide is not qualified to lead the walker through either maze. The author suggests that a serious and courteous
