A Walk Near Kelso With The Last of the Summer Wine Walkers

Todays walk with my walking friends started at the village of Sprouston near Kelso. The first section of the walk headed down to the river Tweed and we followed it downstream for over a mile. One car with John, Sandria and Ken came from Edinburgh. Niall and Elspeth brought Gaye and the ladies were dropped in Kelso for a morning of shopping. Tom and I drove direct to Sprouston and we all arrived within a few minutes of each other. This photo is taken at the War Memorial in Sprouston.

I had forgotten to take my tripod to get all of us in on one photo so Tom took this one.

The first stretch of the Tweed

A couple of fishermen

We saw about 5 of these boats moored by the bank of the river, but none of them were in use.

One of several fishing huts beside the river

Another fisherman. We saw 5 fishermen in the mile long stretch of river

A Swan leading its 4 youngsters. There was lots of bird life on the river including Swans, Geese, Herons, Ducks, and a Cormorant, but they flew off as soon as they saw us.

The only place we had a problem was on a stretch of the river bank that was impassable due to thorny bushes. We had to crawl through the bottom part of a barbed wire fence. Gone are the days when we could easily put one foot on the top of the barbed wire and just leap over. Ken getting through quite easily here.

Tom making heavy weather of getting under the fence

He made it with plenty of laughs

Loads of Apples on this tree

Now walking beside the fields making it much easier

The next stage was a long lane across fields

Harvest all safely gathered in

An interesting fungus on the side of a tree

The lovely lane between the fields

The last section of the walk was the old railway line that stretched from Kelso to Berwick upon Tweed. It opened in 1849 and closed in 1948

Views from the old railway line. Its an excellent walking footpath and looks to be maintained for the benefit of walkers

The well maintained old railway line

Loads of trees and bushes laden with berries

This was Sprouston station with the remnants of a platform. We headed back to Kelso after our walk and met up with Elspeth and Gaye for a lovely lunch in The Cobbles Inn just of the square in Kelso

 

Peter's Birthday Walk at Kelso

As this was Peter's Birthday walk deferred from earlier in the year he decided to take us to what I think is one of the nicest Border towns, Kelso with its lovely Town Hall. Of all the Border towns this must be the best Market Square with loads of room for people to park and many good shops. 

After a short delay due to discovering we could only park for 2 hours in the square we moved the cars and set off on our walk along the river Teviot which is a tributary of the Tweed. Note our war wounded walker Ken on the right at the back. More about his accident later in the blog.

The first place of interest was Roxburgh Castle and Peter had planned to take us up this small hill to see the ruins. Unfortunately the route was deep in Nettles and our brave leader led the way but most of us eventually decided it was not for us and headed back the way we had come. Poor Tom was wearing shorts and had many Nettle stings before he too gave up. 

The view from the top just before we turned back at the site of Roxburgh Castle was stunning with Floors Castle in the distance.

Having walked the right bank of the River Teviot we stopped for a lunch break near where 2 railway lines met. One line was to Kelso and the other one was to Jedburgh. The second half of the walk was along the now disused Kelso railway line.

This was the road just down from our lunch stop with 2 old bridges that would have taken the 2 separate lines over the road. 

Tom giving his stung legs a rest with Elizabeth keeping him company

This is the old curved viaduct that crosses the river Teviot. Upstream of the viaduct is the village of Roxburgh and the Roxburgh Hotel and Golf Course

There are many new houses in the village and they look a bit out of place here and not very attractive, although very expensive.

The band of walkers all giving their views on the houses in the village. 

The walk was 8 miles and we finished up having a lovely lunch in the Cobbles. Ken is sporting a  black eye and cut on his head which was the result of a fall while out walking earlier in the week. At least that is his story and he is sticking to it. In a weeks time we will be heading for Cromer in Norfolk where we have booked a large house and will walk stretches of the North Norfolk Coastal Trail and the Pedars Way.