Another Walk on the Borders Drovers Road

Six weeks ago Mike and I walked this Borders Drovers Road on a beautiful summers day and we were very impressed with it. Charlie was unavailable that day so we were determined to take him to Hawick to see it for himself. The best part is the mile long Drove road which has 2 drystone dykes flanking it. Between the drystone dykes there are a multitude of wild flowers and today it was a huge quantity of Berries and Sloes

It is a well sheltered road and a pleasure to walk along

This Elder tree was full of Elderberry fruit.

This beautiful Highland Cow was not a bit bothered by our presence

Another Elderberry Tree

The downhill section of the Drove Road

Another prominent fruit was Rosehips

This was a Hawthorn and Elder intwined together and very old

Rosehips and Sloes

More Rosehips. We had a lovely walk and came back to The Buccleuch Centre for our coffee and were served within a minute of walking in the door as we have the same order every Thursday. 

 

Walking Through a time Zone on Hadrians Wall

Today's Thursday walk with Mike and Charlie took us to Lanercost Priory where we started our 5 mile walk first of all along the river Irthing and then following the route of Hadrians Wall.

Lanercost Priory

The three intrepid walkers with an average age of 80. It took us two and a quarter hours to cover the 5 miles and we just had one short stop of about 10 minutes, although on the uphill sections we stopped to admire the view several times. 

We saw plenty of Crab Apple trees and this one was laden with apples

More Crab Apples

One of the nice wooden signposts for Hadrians Wall

A very old and unusual tree that has grown on a section of the wall. There are not many places at this part of the Hadrian wall walk that you can actually see the remains of the wall.

Plenty of Sloe Berries

A section of the path where stone flags have been put down to avoid erosion

A lovely farmhouse we passed at the half way point

Mike and Charlie

Many of the small streams leading in to the Irthing River were now almost dry

The same stream a little bit further along

One of the problems on these walks is the maintenance of the stiles and gates. This stile was in a bad way and we had great difficulty getting over it. We had a superb 5 mile walk and ended up having a nice Coffee back at The Buccleuch Centre as the Cafe at Lanercost Abbey was busy.

 

A Walk at Castle O'er With Mike and Charlie and a Repaired Seat

Today's Thursday walk took the 3 of us to Castle O'er for a 4 mile walk first of all along the forestry road and then back along the very quiet B road. We only saw 1 vehicle in the 45 minutes we walked along the road section of the walk.

Lots of nice Heather beside the road

A good view of the White Esk from the Forestry road.

The Forestry road. It is a great place for Raspberries but its been too hot for them this year and they were very small.

A nice Rowan Tree

The highest section of the walk

When we got home after a quick Coffee in The Buccleuch Centre I got a text message from Rob McConnachie the joiner who was pleased to report that he had now fixed the broken seat on the Castleholm. He has made an excellent job of repairing it and our anonymous sponsor is to be thanked for paying for this to be done. There is another seat due to be fixed on the road up Warbla and this will be done this autumn.

A Walk at Claygate

Over the last few weeks my regular morning walk has been round the Lodge walks or the Pheasant Pens so today I decided to head for Claygate and do a walk I did regularly during the Covid pandemic year in 2020. Parking at Gilnockie Public hall I headed towards Gilnockie Station and then walked down the old railway line and from there down a lane back to the B6318 road.

After a heavy night rain it was a little muddy but perfectly passable.

A tree had fallen over the path but still left plenty of clearance for walkers

The path is slightly narrower from what it used to be and I don't think it is used as often as it used to be.

 

I have a new facility on my phone now and it will identify wild flowers as soon as I take the photograph. It identifies this as Bindweed (Calystegia sepium), although I wont accept that as read until Mike confirms it.

This is Sneezewort

This is named as Wood Betony or Marsh Woodwort

This is named as Common Knapweed

This was quite prolific in places and is named as Devil's Bit Scabious

When back on the road (B6318) I came to an area cleared of trees and as a result of this there was a lovely path had been left beside the old wood. It was only a half mile there and back but it was a superb walk.

A better view of the lovely path that at one time would have never been noticed

I hope that it is kept this way. In the field behind these trees there was a gang of 8 forestry workers clearing an area as if it will be replanted.

This looked to be very hard work and I am not sure exactly what they were doing.

It was a most enjoyable 3 mile walk.

Lower Tarras Valley Nature Reserve Walk with Mario and Leo

 

This morning I took son in law Mario and grandson Leo to the area above The Ponds at the Lower Tarras area of the Nature Reserve. It was a lovely morning and they enjoyed the challenge of the walk. This is Tom Stothart's seat placed there a few months ago. There was another group of 4 walkers visited it about 20 minutes before us so it is getting quite popular these days.

The forest area was felled 3 years ago and the two ponds created in November 2024. The progress of the ponds has been dramatic and lots of life has moved into them.

The amount of Heather starting to grow where there was once thousands of trees is spectacular. That Heather must have remained dormant all that time and as soon as there is light it re generates.

Lovely fresh Heather

Because of the dry summer the path created round the felled area is quite dry just now

Left to its own devices the felled area will eventually all green over and the old tree stumps will rot away

Mario and Leo enjoying the view and watching 4 Buzzards that were making a lot of noise

Heather everywhere

At this point we had climbed the steepest part and were just about a hundred yards away from the plateau at the top, where we got wonderful views over the Esk Valley