WALKING IN THE About the Author Ronald Turnbull is a walker and writer based in ’s Nith Valley. He is descended from a formidable Border reiving family – the name itself indicates success at stealing cows, and the Turnbulls, based at near , played a leading part in the Redeswire Fray (1575). Ronald has made 21 different coast- to-coast crossings of the UK, including one along the – border. He has also slept out, in bivvy bag rather than tent, on more than 90 UK summits, including most recently Shillhope Law (Walk 1 in this book). Outside the UK he likes hot, rocky areas of Europe, ideally with beaches and cheap aeroplanes. Recent trips have included Utah’s Canyonlands and the Stubaital Höhenweg, in Austria. He also tries to understand the geology of what he’s been walking and climbing on for so long. WALKING IN Most of Ronald’s walking, and writing, takes place in the Lake District and in the Scottish Highlands, but sometimes heading east into his ancestral THE SCOTTISH BORDERS lands. His other books about the Scottish Borders include Battle Valleys, a pictorial history of the Border Country, and his earlier Walking in the , which includes many longer hill days in the Borders. CHEVIOTS, TWEED, ETTRICK, Ronald has nine times won Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild AND Awards for Excellence for his guidebooks (including Jurassic Coast), out- door books (including The Book of the Bivvy), and magazine articles. He by Ronald Turnbull writes frequently in Lakeland Walker, and The Great Outdoors (TGO). www.ronaldturnbull.co.uk

Other Cicerone guides by the author Ben Nevis and Glen Coe Walking in the Southern Uplands Not the Walking Loch Lomond and The Book of the Bivvy the Trossachs Three Peaks, Ten Tors Walking the Jurassic Coast Walking Highland Perthshire Walking the Walking in the Cairngorms (revised and updated 2018) Walking the Hills JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS, OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL www.cicerone.co.uk © Ronald Turnbull 2020 Fourth edition CONTENTS ISBN: 978 1 78631 011 8 Third edition 2005 Second edition 1999 Map key...... 7 First edition 1993 Overview map...... 8

Printed in China on responsibly sourced paper on behalf of Latitude Press Ltd INTRODUCTION ...... 11 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The borders of the Borders...... 12 All photographs are by the author unless otherwise stated. Land of ballads...... 13 Geology of the Scottish Borders...... 14 Wildlife ...... 15 © Crown copyright 2020 OS PU100012932 When to walk...... 17 Getting there ...... 18 Getting around...... 18 Accommodation...... 19 Maps ...... 19 Acknowledgements Access...... 20 Safety in the hills ...... 22 Thanks to Fi Martynoga of Traquair, and to the grouse of Shillhope Law, for Using this guide...... 22 their overnight hospitality during the writing of this book. 1: THE CHEVIOTS (SOUTH) ...... 23 Walk 1 Shillhope Law from Alwinton ...... 25 Walk 2 Windy Gyle...... 30 Updates to this guide Walk 3 Spout...... 35 While every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of Walk 4 Ingram hillforts...... 37 guidebooks as they go to print, changes can occur during the lifetime of an Walk 5 A Hedgehope Horseshoe to ...... 41 edition. Any updates that we know of for this guide will be on the Cicerone website (www.cicerone.co.uk/1011/updates), so please check before 2: THE CHEVIOTS (NORTH)...... 47 planning your trip. We also advise that you check information about such Walk 6 Akeld to Humbleton Hill...... 49 things as transport, accommodation and shops locally. Even rights of way Walk 7 The Cheviot: Hen Hole and Bizzle Hole...... 53 can be altered over time. We are always grateful for information about any Walk 8 Newton Tors...... 58 discrepancies between a guidebook and the facts on the ground, sent by Walk 9 Yeavering Bell...... 63 email to [email protected] or by post to Cicerone, Juniper House, Walk 10 Forts for the day: Great Hetha and Ring Chesters...... 67 Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, LA9 7RL. Walk 11 Yetholm to The Schil...... 73 Register your book: To sign up to receive free updates, special offers Walk 12 Staerough Hill...... 77 and GPX files where available, register your book at www.cicerone.co.uk. Walk 13 Grubbit Law and Wideopen Hill...... 80 Walk 14 Dere Street to Chew Green...... 83

Front cover: On Staerough Hill (Walk 12) Map key

3: THE TWEED...... 89 7: LONGER WALKS AND EXPEDITIONS...... 231 Walk 15 Ford to Roughting Linn...... 91 Walk 46 Walking the Border: Gretna to Berwick...... 233 Walk 16 Horncliffe to Norham...... 96 Walk 17 St Abb’s Head...... 103 Other long routes...... 237 Walk 18 Kelso and ...... 109 St Cuthbert’s Way...... 237 Walk 19 Roxburgh village and viaduct...... 114 Moffat to ...... 238 Walk 20 ...... 116 to Carter Bar...... 239 Walk 21 Waterloo Monument...... 119 ...... 240 Walk 22 and the Tweed ...... 123 Southern Upland Way (east)...... 241 Walk 23 Tweed and Eildon...... 126 Berwickshire Coastal Path...... 242 Walk 24 A Melrose Ramble...... 130 John Buchan Way...... 243 ...... 244 4: YARROW AND ETTRICK ...... 135 Way...... 245 Walk 25 Bowhill: Duchess Drive...... 137 Walk 26 Ettrickbridge and Dryhope Tower ...... 141 Appendix A Route summary table...... 246 Walk 27 Broadmeadows to the Minchmoor Road...... 146 Appendix B Important information and facilities by area...... 252 Walk 28 Yarrow to Glengaber Hill...... 150 Walk 29 St Mary’s Loch...... 153 Walk 30 Loch of the Lowes and Peniestone Knowe...... 158 Route symbols on OS map extracts Features on the overview map Walk 31 Bodesbeck Law...... 161 (for OS legend see printed OS maps) Walk 32 Ettrick Head Horseshoe...... 164 National boundary Walk 33 Selcoth Burn and Potburn Hass...... 167 route Walk 34 and Capel ...... 172 Urban area alternative route National Park 5: ...... 175 start/finish point eg National Scenic Area Walk 35 Loch Skeen and ...... 177 start point Walk 36 Dob’s Linn to Loch Skeen...... 182 eg Eildon and Leaderfoot finish point Walk 37 ...... 185 >800m Walk 38 Devil’s Beef Tub...... 188 alternative start/finish point 600m Walk 39 Devil’s Beef Tub from Moffat...... 193 400m route direction 200m Walk 40 Gameshope circuit...... 196 75m 0m 6: MANOR HILLS...... 203 SCALE: 1:50,000 Walk 41 Traquair: the Raxed Thrapple...... 205 0 kilometres 0.5 1 Walk 42 and Glen Sax...... 210 0 miles 0.5 Walk 43 Cademuir Hill and the Tweed...... 215 Walk 44 Pykestone Hill from ...... 220 GPX files for all routes can be downloaded free at www.cicerone.co.uk/1011/GPX. Walk 45 ...... 225

6 7 Walking in the Scottish Borders Overview map Denny Burntisland NorthNorth Berwick Berwick Rosyth FIRTH OF FORTH Falkirk EastEast Linton Linton Dunbar M9 N A1 Tranent HaddingtonHaddington St Abb’s Head Bathgate 0 10 Airdrie Livingston 17 km A720 Dalkeith M8 Eyemouth A1 A71 Eye Water Penicuik A702 LAMMERMUIRSLAMMERMUIRS A701 A7

Leader Berwick-upon-Tweed SCOTLAND Resr Duns A68 16 LauderLauderA697A697 Lanark Water Greenlaw Holy Island R A72 Peebles R Tweed Clyde Bamburgh SOUTHERN UPLANDS EildonEildon and and Upper Ford Castle A1 Castle 43 LeaderfootLeaderfoot Biggar Tweeddale R Tweed Kelso 15 42 22 22 Flodden Traquair Melrose R T Seahouses Douglas 44 27 ill 41 23-24 18-19 12 Homildon Hill M74 28 A68 A68 Selkirk Dryhope Tower 25 11 7-10 Wooler Northumberland 45 26 21 6 Coast Broad Law 29 13 The Cheviot 30 DenholmDenholm 5 40 Windy Gyle A697 35-36 20 4 White Coomb Hawick 14 3 Alnwick 38 RubersRubers 2 37 LawLaw Hart Fell 31-32 R Aln A7 R Teviot Water 1 A1 39 A68 33-34 Cauldcleuch Amble Moffat Jed Jed Head NORTHUMBERLAND PeelPeel Fell Fell Rothbury R Esk Otterburn R Coquet R Rede

Thornhill A1068 R Nith Hermitage KielderKielder Elsdon Castle Otterburn A701 Boreland Kielder Moniaive Water Liddel Water Morpeth A76 M74(M) Langholm ENGLAND R North Tyne Newcastleton A696 A68

A75 8 9  (WLookingalking indown the into Scotti the sDevil’sh Border Beefs Tub (Walk 38

INTRODUCTION

Moffat Dale and the Ettrick Head hills (Walk 33)

The Scottish Border Country, the his- cry of the plover. Here too is upland toric battleground between England more austere: nodding cotton grass, and Scotland, stretches from the dark heather stalks, silver puddles Cheviots as far as the headwaters of and black peaty bog. Such country the Tweed and what is today the M74 has its own charm, but it’s often the motorway. It’s a land of little green lower hills, shaped and drained by the valleys and the shining rivers that run streams of the valley’s sides, that give through them – whether those drain the most rewarding walking. northwards to the Tweed or south- This book starts with such hill wards into England. On either side country: the Cheviots, whether rise steep but grassy slopes, cut by approached from Scotland or north- sharp little streams, and topped off wards out of England. It ends with the with Iron Age forts and the occasional hills of the west: Ettrick and Moffat rocky tor. and the Manors. In between it’s the The high country above and Tweed, the big river that drains out of between the valleys is crisscrossed Scotland but ends in England, whose with green pathways. These were once every ford has run bloodstained from busy with Roman soldiers, long-strid- battle. Here are walks along the wide ing saints, cattle thieves and the occa- water, dodging below ancient castles sional wandering salt salesman. Today for coffee in one of the brownstone they’re kept open by the shepherd on villages or in the shadow of an abbey her quad bike – but also, increasingly, ruined by Henry VIII. Here too are by walkers who value the solitude small, free-standing summits poking below the wide skies and the lonely out of the plain. Eildon and Rubers

10 11 Walking in the Scottish Borders Land of ballads

the valley floor. There is also some an earlier time of local warlords and overlap on the English side of the an economy based on stealing one border with Cicerone’s Walking in another’s cattle. Coast to coast, from Northumberland, by Vivienne Crow. the northern tributaries of the Tyne to There are five routes more-or-less the southern tributaries of the Tweed common to the two books, though Viv and westwards to Gretna Green, nei- and I rarely choose exactly the same ther England nor Scotland governed. route, even when we’re both aiming The way of life – which involved for the same hill. a high level of death, by starvation or sword-play – lasted for 150 years, ending quite abruptly at the Union of near Norham Castle (Walk 16) LAND OF BALLADS the Crowns in 1603. These everyday ‘Every valley has its battle, and every customs are recorded in the Border Law offer a more open and airy sort of ranges around its headwaters in the stream its song,’ wrote Ballads, collected 200 years later by half-day on the hill. west. Of the walks included, 25 are in 1830, while inviting a friend to Walter Scott (descended from one of The great River Tweed and the within the local government's Borders visit his Abbotsford house beside the the most dreaded Border clans him- five hill ranges that supply its waters: region – or at least set off from there, Tweed. If there’s a true definition of the self). But more than that, you can read this country has a shaggy character as often we will be crossing the bor- Scottish Borders, it comes from his- it in the country itself: the pele towers all of its own, bloodstained in its his- ders of Borders. But given that this is tory. In the turbulent times of Scottish and the fortified farmhouses known as tory but (mostly) smooth underfoot. a book for walkers, geography has to Independence after Bannockburn, bastles; the sturdy Border townships If you’re bored of the Borders, then trump politics: 13 of the walks actu- the wide country between Galloway with their seven-a-side rugby and you’re bored of life. ally start on the English side of the and the Tyne was fought and refought riding of the marches; the truce cairns border, in the southern and eastern over so many times that the feudal along the border ridgeline where Cheviots or the lowest part of the structures of what then constituted disputes could sometimes be settled THE BORDERS OF Tweed. Westwards, 7 are in Dumfries civilisation broke down, reverting to without anybody needing to get killed. THE BORDERS & Galloway Region. Overall, 6 are In 1975, local government reorgani- fully international, crossing into both Dryhope Tower (Walk 29) sation lumped together the Scottish Scotland and England. counties of Peebles, Roxburgh, My Walking in the Southern Selkirk and Berwick into a region Uplands, also published by Cicerone, called Borders (its slogan: ‘Scotland’s is an overview of hill walks from top short break destination’). This Galloway to the Lammermuirs. This is a smaller area than what has includes the high ground sections 1, traditionally been known as the Border 2, and 4–6 of this book. Some sum- Country or the Scottish Borders. For mits, such as White Coomb and The this book, the country of the Border Cheviot, are necessarily included in is considered as being the wide valley both books; but this time around I’ve of the Tweed, along with the hills that concentrated on slightly shorter and drain into it: the Cheviots to the south, less severe ways up them, as well as and the Ettrick, Moffat and Manor hill on the rewarding smaller hills and

12 13 Walking in the Scottish Borders Wildlife

And above all, in the emptiness (even along the road verge like the river today) of the long valleys with their running beside them, as families and winding silver rivers and hillforts on fellwalkers stream through Linhope the horizon: Ettrick and Yarrow, Moffat on their way to the waterfall. The hill Dale and Manor Water, Breamish and paths used by the cattle raiders – and College and Coquet. Oystercatchers before them by the saints trekking beep among the banks of shingle, and through to Lindisfarne, the Roman the curlews shriek and moan above legions, the tribes of the Iron Age – the wide moors. are busy again with folk in waterproof The people who lived here and jackets, little rucksacks on their backs. loved these valleys – loved them right Granite tor, Bellyside Crag on The Cheviot (Walk 7) up until the hoofbeats came in the night and the thatch flamed above GEOLOGY OF THE Greywacke is slabby and Between the two ranges, the wide their heads – were Armstrongs and SCOTTISH BORDERS massive. It doesn’t form great cliffs, Tweed valley is made of much softer Elliots, the Johnstones and Scotts and About 400 million years ago, what but eroded rocky scars and little gill rock, the . This Kerrs, the Forsters and Fenwicks and would eventually be called Scotland streams. Where enough of it shows formed in a hot desert climate, from Grahams, and the small but vicious crunched into what would end to reveal the bedding of the ancient debris washed out of the mountains. tribe of Turnbulls. They’re scattered up as England. On either side, the ocean floor, you’ll see that it’s been Where it’s seen in riverbanks, the con- across the world now, replaced crumpled-up rocks form the hill zones folded and bent up vertical by the trast with the harder mountain rocks by empty grazings of the Cheviot of today: the Highlands and the Lake continental collision. Friable shale is obvious. But it’s more visible as an sheep. Nithsdale to upper Clyde is District, respectively. In between the beds found in some gullies contain excellent building stone, forming the a continuous windfarm; Ottersburn two, deep ocean sludges were raised scratchy small fossils of ancient sea ruined abbeys and handsome towns. a shooting range for tanks; Kielder a and crumpled like a trodden-on tube creatures (see Walk 36). Long after The Cheviot had woodpulp plantation, the biggest in of toothpaste. The compressed sludges As the collision ground to an calmed down again, some small Europe. formed a rock called greywacke; end, earth movements and friction volcanoes erupted through the red But on a summer bank holiday, their hill range, in the squash zone heat deep underground melted rocks sandstone, to give us the rugged little Breamish returns to its lively state of between England and Scotland, is the above. The rock-melt erupted as lava hills like Rubers Law. At St Abb’s Head seven hundred years ago. Cars sparkle Southern Uplands. from volcanoes, or crystallised below (visited on Walk 17), these jumbled the surface as granite. The resulting lavas lie right alongside both the Old Folded greywacke at Pettico Wick, St Abbs (Walk 17) rocks now form the Cheviot Hills; Red Sandstone and the greywacke. granite at the centre, surrounded by volcanic lavas. Like the Southern Uplands, the hills are grassy (or WILDLIFE peaty) and rounded. But they betray Given centuries of heavy grazing by their volcanic origin in intrusive sills sheep, the plantlife has degraded to of tougher rock, and occasional lit- a mix of coarse grassland, bog cot- tle granite tors. The rocks, when you ton and sphagnum moss in the soggy see them, are pinkish. The granite is places, and heather on the drier crystalline; the featureless rhyolite can ground. In spring and early summer contain yellowish crystals of feldspar. a few brightly coloured wildflowers

14 15 Walking in the Scottish Borders

1: THE CHEVIOTS (SOUTH) WALK 1 Shillhope Law from Alwinton

When approached out of England, the hollows, and half of the hills are Start/finish Alwinton (NT 921 063) the Cheviots are remarkably remote. topped off with a hillfort. Walk 1 Alternative start/finish Shillmoor farm (NT 883 077) for the shorter variant Not only do they lie further north than tracks those ancient pathways to small Distance 18km (11 miles) some parts of Scotland, they are also but distinguished Shillhope Law; Ascent 750m hidden away behind the UK’s largest Walk 2 takes a more recent route – Harshness 4 wood pulp plantation, and the red one that’s merely Roman in age – up Approx time 6hr flags of the Otterburn military ranges. to the 600m contour on the Border Terrain Ancient tracks and paths; 1km of rough moorland and In the off-season especially, their ridgeline. Walk 4 in the Breamish a rough ascent above Usway Burn national-park status is belied by the valley is a fort walk specifically. Highest point Shillhope Law, 501m loneliness of the long, green valleys. Winding valleys, ancient settle­ Parking Grass parking at the foot of Clennell Street. There is It’s the valleys that give the ments – are we forgetting that the also a Pay and Display car park further west in the Cheviot Hills their character: Alwin Cheviots are (the clue’s in the name) a village. and Coquet flow south to the Tyne; range of hills? Well, it would be easily Variants Short cut omitting Shillhope Law 15.5km (9½ miles) Breamish is still in England but runs done. Many of the highest points 550m ascent – about 5hr. Shillhope Law from northwards to the Tweed. Each has its are flat places of peat and heather. Shillmoor farm 9km (5½ miles) 400m – about 3hr. tiny tarmac road, crossing and recross- (Walk 5) gives you ing its silver stream, dodging around a taste of this distinctive but not a gorse bush to reach another lonely altogether delightful sort of country. farmhouse. And at each valley head, On the return leg, the black swamp Though only 500m high, Shillhope is one of just five in the Cheviots marked older roads head upwards into the that forms The Cheviot itself is rather on Harvey maps as a ‘major hill’. This will be because of its status as a hills; Roman Dere Street and Bronze easier to appreciate, as it’s crossed by Marilyn – a hill with 150m of clear drop all around. Its tent shape, pitched Age Clennell Street, or the green paths a stone-slab path. between the Coquet and Usway valleys, means a north-south traverse along of the 16th-century cattle thieves. Last and also least, the short Walk its ridgeline is rewarding. But it’s also rather short! The remedy is to start Also characteristically Cheviot 3, leading to an impressive waterfall, from further away, at Alwinton, along ancient highways of Clennell Street are the steep-sided, grassy-topped is the southern Cheviots’ one really and the Pass Peth. hills that rise above the valleys at popular walk. Those who want Shillhope in a hurry, however, can start at Shillmoor every wiggle. Iron Age man and farm; this is described at the start of the main route. While those who don’t woman appreciated these, every bit want Shillhope Law at all can link the ancient paths via the same Usway as much as the hillwalkers of today. Burn short cut, half way through the walk. Ancient green pathways run up into

Alternative start from Shillmoor farm Start at the roadside opposite Shillmoor farm (NT 885 077). Head up the farm’s tarmac access lane, and bear left before the buildings in a track marked as private

24 25 Walking in the Scottish Borders Walk 1 – Shillhope Law from Alwinton

MoD road. It runs into the Usway Burn valley. Follow it above the fence through a small gate, now rejoining the upstream, or on grassy riverbanks, crossing three girder main route. bridges. At a gate before Batailshiel Haugh, bear right on a Start from Alwinton green path above the fence, to pass above the buildings, From Alwinton, cross a footbridge onto the tarmac lane with a wiggle to the right to a footbridge over Mid Hope. of Clennell Street, and head uphill, soon on a grass and Stay above the fence to a path fork, gravel track with widening views. It passes round the where a bridleway base of Castle Hills, a large but indistinct settlement (hill- ahead continues fort) with great views back over the valley. Then it runs to left of fences along a ridgeline above Alwinton Burn.

CLENNELL STREET Clennell is a Bronze Age trackway, evidenced by hillforts, roundhouses and burial cairns along its route. Originally named as Yarnspeth or Earnespeth (eagle’s path) – the pseudo-Roman ‘Clennell St’ is a Victorian affectation. It continued to be an important highway well into the 18th century, and still has the status of a highway (on the English side a ‘restricted byway’) with a regular MoT road sign high on the Border ridge (Walk 2).

Coming to a slight rise above Hosedon Linn, the faint The former Clennell grass track bears slightly right, around the right flank. Street headed through Clearer track heads down northwest to a gate above this plantation the corner of a plantation.Take the faint bridle- but is invisible way track, still northwest, around the northern on the ground. flank of the slight rise Uplaw Knowe. Drop west past wooden sheep pens to a clearer track running to right of a fence. As the ground rises again, the track This is all that bears right, high above Kidlandlee Dean, remains of then rises past a tin sheep shed.The Wholehope, a track drops into forestry plantations, shepherd’s cottage and joins a gravelled forest road north. that in the 1940s After 1km there’s open ground on the and 50s became left, and in another 600 metres the track a primitive bends right with a wooden gate on the youth hostel. left. Through this, very faint wheelmarks lead across rough moorland very slightly

26 27 Walking in the Scottish Borders Walk 1 – Shillhope Law from Alwinton

riverbank. Here, cross the stream to a fence corner. Head uphill, north, in a re-entrant with grass rather than bracken, but still rugged going. At the 350m contour, a quad bike path contours left If this is missed, through the bracken, to a gate in ridgeline fence (NT just head on uphill 8758 1098). past a rocky bulge Turn left along the grassy ridgeline, gently uphill to to the ridge top. a gate, then up wheelmarks to right of a fence, through heather. At the fence top the wheelmarks turn right, to Shillhope Law trig point. Return back east to go through a gate and turn down to left of the fence. It’s grassy going, with a wheelmark track joining from the left at the first col. The grassy ridge- line runs high above Usway Burn, then bends down south above Coquetdale. After a gateway in a crossing fence, bear left to a fence corner, where a clear track runs down to the gravelled MoD track above Usway Burn. Turn right, The shortcut route to the farm at Shillmoor. rejoins here. At the riverside turn left on a track through a gate. Heading down to uphill, bearing 290°, to the start of a wide, grassy moor- As the track bears uphill, fork right on a green path (the Batailshiel Haugh land shoulder running down southwest. Head down it to Pass Peth) above the wall of a riverside field. The small go through a gate at the col before The Castles. but clear path crosses a footbridge, then runs above River A decomposing stile You could now turn steeply down right, left of the Coquet. It crosses a track, into a strip of woods. Here it on the right is the fence – or in bracken-free winter, keep ahead over The crosses a small stream, and slants uphill. start of an overgrown Castles. But easiest is to turn down left, beside the fence. After a gate out of the plantation the Pass Peth slants footpath to Linbriggs, Before a shepherds’ hut start slanting down pasture to a up onto a flat moorland shoulder. Cross this southeast, to taking an exciting The short route from field gate and the footpath/bridleway junction above the a small gate below enclosed pasture. The path runs below line across steep Shillmoor joins here. fields of Batailshiel Haugh. a fence to another gate, then slants down rough grassland riverbank – try it in to the valley road. Above the road you can continue on winter perhaps. Short cut omitting Shillhope Law a rough path along access land for another 500 metres, Keep ahead above the fence, wiggling left over a foot- then join a track corner down onto the road. Follow it for bridge then passing above Batailshiel Haugh onto its 1km into Alwinton. access track. Follow this down Usway Burn to the farm at Shillmoor, to rejoin the main route.

For Shillhope Law, turn back right above the fence, dropping to a green path along the riverbank. The slope opposite is covered with bracken. So, follow the stream bank around the base of The Castles. Where the stream bends right, the path passes along slightly rocky

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