Niall's Non Birthday Walk

The walk today was a Non- Birthday Walk selected by Niall as his birthday is at the wrong time to be with us so he selected a 6.6 mile walk from the town of Coldstream which partly followed the River Tweed and finished through the Hirsel Estate that was once the home of Sir Alec Douglas Home the ex Prime Minister. We left Langholm in the rain but as we for further east it stopped and we had an almost dry walk with just a couple of showers. At the car park where we started the walk there is a lovely garden with these Saltires in the background. We decided to take the photograph with the YES voters on one side and the NO voters on the other. I will leave it to readers to decide which is which, but maybe we were not being totally truthful.

The view from the garden at the start of the river Tweed and looking into England

This area is perfect for Barley and there are many fields just like this with almost perfect crops. Looks like it will be a good year for these farmers.

There were plenty of fishermen on the river Tweed but this is the first time I have seen a dog fishing.

In the Hirsel Estate there were plenty of these old Scots Pines

A coffee break in the cafe on the Hirsel Estate

Tom & Martin have a chat with Sir Alec.
It was a superb walk with plenty to see in lovely countryside. We went for a meal after the walk and entered the Besom Pub and were given a table for 7 and menus and then 2 minutes later the manageress came over to us and said we were too late as the kitchen closed at 2.00pm (it was 2.01pm) and suggested we move to another pub up the high street. I was furious as this is a perfect example of poor business ethics and who in this day and age can afford to turn down good business like this. We therefore went further along the road to the Newcastle Inn and were provided with a nice meal pleasantly served. I shall of course be making comments on Trip Advisor so they have really lost out by not serving us.