A Tribute to Peter Bart-Smith

These are a few photos taken of our good friend Peter Bart-Smith during his walking expeditions and holidays with The Last of the Summer Wine Walkers. He was a great walking companion and we had such laughs and discussions. He will be sorely missed but we are all better people for having had him in our lives. Our sincere condolences to his family and many friends and especially those who enjoyed playing sport with him as he was a true sportsman in every sense of the word.

This was taken at 12.12pm on 12/12/2012

Peters first walk with The Last of the Summer Wine Walkers was near Appleby.

From our walk of The Great Glen

Walking the Pebble Beach near Cromer in Norfolk

With John in the Stocks in the Yorkshire Dales

Dinner at a nice Hotel near Colvend in the Stewartry

Another from The Yorkshire Dales

Somewhere in the Borders

On the Bowling Green for our annual LOTSWW match and the only sport he didn’t excell at but he tried hard

In Memory of a Good Friend John Glover

Over the years John has walked on many occasions with The Last of the Summer Wine Walkers. This was in April 2013 when we were invited to his home in Dumfries and did an 8 mile walk led by Bowman.

Enjoying a beer after the walk.

 

In October 2014 John was very much involved with a Rumanian charity he helped set up to help orphans from that country. He brought two people over from Rumania who were involved with the charity. he made several journeys to Rumania all at his own expense and managed to overcome the bureaucracy that was so difficult overcome at that time. 

In June 2017 The Last of the Summer Wine walkers had a holiday cottage for a week at Colvend near Dalbeattie and John and Marion joined us for a days walking.

In Langholm in October 2018 to do the 10 Langholm bridges walk

In November 2022 when John was having health problems Tom and I met him and Marion at Glencaple and had a lovely lunch in The Boathouse 

In September 2021 we met John and Marion at Threave and did a nice walk to the Castle. It was the last walk we would do with John.

His Memorial Service yesterday was attended by about 1000 people. The Kirk was absolutely packed and we heard many tributes to John from various people but the most moving was a wonderful tribute to her dad by his daughter Joanne. I have known John for over 60 years and my most memorable time with him was in 1984 when I took him to Wales for the Wales v Scotland Rugby International. It was a memorable weekend and of course Scotland won. In a pub on the Saturday evening after the match John stood up in front of loads of Welsh supporters and did his Max Boyce impersonation. He brought the house down and had the place rocking with laughter. 

A Visit to Peniel Heugh and The Waterloo Monument

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I arranged to meet John and Ken from Edinburgh at Harestanes Visitor Centre near Ancrum at 10.30am and we arrived within a minute of each other. The walk was an almost 5 mile one to the top of Peniel Heugh, which is 237M high and on it sits the Waterloo Monument. The monument was built between 1817 and 1824 to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo. There is a projecting gallery at the top of the monument but the tower is not open to the public. The hill is the site of an iron age fort.

These trees appealed to me so I took a photo of them only to discover I had taken the same photo 8 years ago when we last visited.

Ken and John were good company. We missed Tom who was packing for his holiday to Barbados.

A wee pond on one of the many paths through the woods

The Waterloo Monument on the summit of Peniel Heugh

The locked gate stopping us from getting to the balcony

This is Ruberslaw in the distance and we have climbed that a couple of times.
 

Old Photos from 1960 or 1961 with Billy Steele

This is an old photo from my early years in The Boys Brigade and was recently sent to me by my friend John Irving. L to R David Hogg, Billy Steele, Gavin Graham, Bobby Kyle. Billy of course went on to play  Rugby for Scotland and the famous 1974 British Lions who were unbeaten. He also introduced Flower of Scotland as the Lions favourite song and it has become the Scottish National Anthem. 

Myself with Johns Mum and Dad Nan and Archie Irving at their favourite picnic spot near Douglen Cleuch near Bentpath. 

 

The Westerhall Snowdrops

I love a visit to Westerhall and this was my first one of 2024 to take photographs of the Snowdrops. They are almost at their peak and the next 2 weeks will be the best time to see them in all their glory. I will visit again in March for the Daffodils and in April and May for the Bluebells and Azaleas, although with a visit to California then I might miss them at their best. 

A lovely avenue of trees with loads of Snowdrops

This is the Westerhall Folly just opposite the big house.

The view of the Benty Bridge from the Westerhall road

Westerhall farmhouse

Westerhall House. While I was walking through the estate there I was passed several times by the gardeners who were busy cutting tree branches and doing various other works. Its so lovely to see an estate so well managed and in such beautiful condition. 

If anybody wishes to view these Snowdrops then park up at Benty Hall and walk through the estate but do not leave the road and keep any dogs on a lead as there are sheep about and will be lambing soon.

 

A Visit from John

John Irving arrived to spend a couple of days with us on Friday. Its a few months since he was last in Langholm so it was nice to see him and we planned a couple of walks. The first was a 4.5 mile circular walk round St. Bride's Hill which takes you up towards Arrisgill and then over into the next valley to Westwater. 

The start and finish of the walk at Wauchope School House.

This is the Forestry Road which takes you down into Westwater

The beautiful new house built up at Shaw by a young Langholm Businessman who has done so well in his contracting Forestry business. It is the perfect site with wonderful views.

The early part of the walk and the road up to Arresgill

This is a Falconry Breeding Centre established fairly recently at Westwater

The Forestry Road that takes you from the Logan water up the hill towards the Westwater Valley

This is the start of the last section of the walk which is on the B7068 road. We were fortunate in that this road is closed at the moment so there was no traffic at all on it. 

A view from the highest point up the valley towards Arresgill

The Logan Water on the way up towards Arresgill

The Farmhouse at Westwater

 

Saturday morning and another walk but this time it was not as clear and sunny as it had been on Friday. Tom joined us and we walked round The Pheasant pens and The Curly Snake

Taking it very carefully down the road from Pathead as the road was very icy underneath a light covering of snow. 

Tom and John on the Castleholm which hopefully will soon below to the community. It has been a hectic 36 hours and included dinner at the Eskdale on Friday evening and a visit to The Market at The Buccleuch Centre on Saturday morning.