A Walk to Timpendean Tower near Jedburgh

We are gradually getting back to fairly regular walks with The Last of the Summer Wine Walkers and this month we headed to Jedburgh for a nice 6 mile walk to Timpendean Tower in the rolling border hills near Jedburgh. The weather was perfect, although very humid but the company was excellent and we had a most enjoyable walk. 

The Harvest is almost ready and in this area there is a lot of Barley

Part of the walk took us through a wood and this old drystone dyke had Holly and Heather growing on the top of the dyke. The Heather this year seems to be better than ever.

Another field of Barley with TimpendeanTower sitting in the next field. 

Tom, John, and Ken. The crack was good and we took our time as it was very warm and sticky.

The rolling hills of the Border Country

Three good friends taken by photographer Tom. He usually tries to get a low profile shot but today if he had got down on his knees he woudn't have been able to get up again.

Social Distancing at its best with Tom sitting on his own tree. The village in the background is Ancrum

The Waterloo Tower in the distance and a walk done by us all a few years ago. We completed the 6 miles in about 3 hours. I had to get home fairly quickly for some work to be done concerning The Buccleuch Centre and the others wanted a Coffee but the only place open had no outside tables available so they made to with cans from a supermarket. 

A Walk Round Castle Loch with the Glovers & Tom

Tom and I headed our separate ways to Lochmaben yesterday to meet John and Marion Glover for a walk round Castle Loch. It was only 4 miles but the temperature was 27c and humidity 98% so we took out time and had loads of drink stops. This is a fishing spot for people in wheelchairs and is a great idea.

 This seat was placed there 8 years ago as a tribute to David Shankland a good friend of John's

    A lunch stop and a selfie using my small tripod and my Apple watch as a timer. Social Distancing was applied and we had a very pleasant 20 minutes stop.

   The car park at Lochmaben Bowling Green and Tennis Courts where we started our walk

Charlie the Spaniel who enjoyed his walk immensely and was much better behaved than Tom

 Lochmaben Castle and the halfway point of our walk. 

Hen Harrier Day on Langholm Moor

Celebrating National Hen Harrier Day 

Alison with her splendid T Shirt.

Getting our Banner ready

A splendid cake with a Hen Harrier on it made by Alison 

Cutting the Cake

The Group celebrating Hen Harrier Day

Inspecting The Meikledale Walk

Mike Tinker and I set out today to inspect The Meikledale Walk which is No 14 in The Langholm Walks Booklet. There has been a lot of Forestry work in this area since the land was given up as a farm and sold for Forestry. In 10 years time you will see a totally different walk with no sign of  the hills just nothing but trees. We plan to do the second part of the walk in a weeks time. It’s quite tough especially for old codgers like us but we did manage to climb over 1600ft and walk 8.4 miles.

This is the new road put in by the Forestry company. It helps the walking in some parts and hinders in others and hopefully in a year or two will blend in better.



Mike sorting one of the marker posts.

This is Bog Asphodel and there was loads of it in the bog at the highest point of the walk where the going was very tough due to the very spongy ground conditions.

The road back down. We went up the Wolf Hope Burn and came down the Jocks Hope Burn. The longer route comes down The Meikledale Burn. 

Hairbell or according to Mike Scottish Bluebell but very pretty whatever you call it.

Lucky White Heather

More wild flowers but I have forgotten what they are called already.

It was a great walk but I for one was very tired and my hips extremely sore at the end of it.