Gaye's Friends of over 60 Years

Every year for about the last 8 years we have met up with our friends Sandra and Bob and Margaret for lunch in the village of Morland near Penrith or on a pub on the A66. We have also had several holidays with them at their holiday cottage in Reeth in the Yorkshire Dales.

Sandra, Gaye, and Margaret were friends at Dough School in Glasgow in the mid 60s when they all worked at Glasgow College of Domestic Science. We met up today in the village of Morland near Penrith. I used to visit Morland when I worked in the Air Freight industry and a company called Survival Aids were based there and we imported most of their adventure equipment from China.

 

A Visit to Byreburnfoot House Gardens

This is Byreburnfoot House and the Gardens were open to the public today under Scotland's Gardens Scheme. It was a beautiful day for the event so we decided to go and have a look. I had been in the house and gardens about 7 years ago as I was friendly with the then owner Bill Frew and he was a a Director of Langholm Initiative when I was also a Director.

Gaye enjoying a seat in a quiet corner of the garden

The new owners have been here for about 6 years and are a group of friends who moved from London to Canonbie. They occupy the big house and two of the cottages with another two cottages being used as holiday lets. They have worked hard on the garden and it was looking really beautiful 

The two cottages at the end are used as holiday lets

One of the many Apple trees in the Orchard area of the garden

Another Apple tree

The Orchard

Apples and flowers

The first two cottages are used as permanent homes

The main house. It used to be owned by Fiona Armstrong.

Gaye enjoying a seat in another part of the garden. We also enjoyed Tea and Cake.

The lovely drive up to the house. A most enjoyable afternoon. There were a few visitors there, mostly from Canonbie but very few from Langholm. They missed a real treat.

 

Common Riding Day 2026

A lovely morning in the Market Place and the crowds seem larger than ever. I love to see the Emblems on display and in this case the Crown and Thistle. Delighted to see Stevie Barker has grown this year's Thistle.

Cornet Thomas Hope and nice to see a name I am familiar with as my father was called Thomas Hope Graham.

Stevie Barker's Thistle and a splendid specimen it is.

The Barley Bannock at the front of the procession

Myself and Sandria in the garden during our quick Coffee break

Bruce Latimer and John Irving have been my Langholm friends for over 60 years from when I came to Langholm from Rowanburn in 1958. John now lives in Edinburgh and Bruce lives in Hastings. We dont see too much of Bruce, but he try to make it back every year for Common Riding.

John with his two Granddaughters Charlotte and Imogen. They loved their first experience of Langholm Common Riding and Charlotte won the girls under ten race on the Castleholm with a prize of £20 so she will have to come back next year to defend her title. We had a lovely day with a superb lunch at Birkwood for about 25 people.

 

Afternoon Tea at Branxholm Castle and a Visit to Tom's Seat

We were invited this afternoon up to Branxholme Castle near Hawick by John and Sandria for afternoon tea. We were very lucky that the weather stayed quite nice and we enjoyed our tea in the summer house

Sandria, Niall, John, Elspeth, Gaye, Tom & Gavin outside their home for the week.

Outside the lovely little Summer House

Sandria and Gaye enjoying the sun

The tower adjoining the house and this part is used as a Spa. We had a lovely afternoon in good company and a very pleasant Afternoon Tea. We shall all meet up again on Thursday evening after the Flute Band perambulates the town for a drink at Ardlui and then for lunch on Common Riding Day at Birkwood.

On Wednesday John and his family came to Langholm for the day and after 9 holes of golf they joined Niall and myself for a walk to see Tom Stothart's seat at The Tarras Valley Nature Reserve ponds. Tom unfortunately couldn't make it for the walk as he was feeling very tired after doing odd jobs at the Golf Club in the morning. This is John and his partner Sandria with John's daughter and son and their spouses. The 2 little girls are his granddaughters and the great granddaughters of Archie Irving the Cornet in 1939. 

When I take visitors on this walk I always ask them to find the special stone with the heart shape on it and a little bird inside the heart. Imogen soon spotted it and this will cost me a Pelosi's ice Cream on Common Riding day.

Walking The Cross Borders Drove Road at Hawick

Mike and I headed up the A7 to Hawick for today's Thursday walk. The walk started at Wilton Park where they have an area of wild flowers planted at the entrance to the park beside the River Teviot and it is at it's very best at the moment. I always enjoy a walk round Wilton Park as there is so much to see and do in it. 

The winter wheat is ready for harvesting and further up the road we saw the Combine Harvester starting up for its day harvesting.

Once we left Wilton Park it was a steady climb up this B road towards Brieryhill where we would turn onto The Cross Borders Drove Road.

This road was fairly quiet apart from a couple of delivery vans.

This is the road back into Hawick after we had used the Cross Borders Drove Road

Plenty of fields of Barley and it looks as if it will all be harvested this week as the Combine was working in one of the fields next to this one.

It looks to be a good harvest

This is the mile long section of The Cross Borders Drove Road we walked along. It is around 52 miles long and runs between Hawick and Harperrig, near the Pentland Hills.It retraces the route drovers used for hundreds of years to walk cattle south from markets to buyers south of the border. The section we walked today had a Dry Stane Dyke on either side and was a mass of wild flowers 

This is Harebells or Scottish Bluebells identified by Mike, but I also discovered that if I looked up the photo on my phone the information section of the photo identified the flower. Mike could now be redundant but I think he is much more informative about it so we wont dispense of his knowledge just yet.

This is Lady's Bedstraw

This could be Widow Flower or Gypsy Rose, but Mike will certainly know which one is correct.

The Combine Harvester starting its work for what will be a full day.

This is Meadow Crane's Bill

Not a lot of grass on this field for the many Cattle feeding in it. 

Another view of the excellent path heading into the distance with the dry stane dykes on either side of the path. There were also several wooden seats along the pathway as well so plenty places to stop for a rest.

It really was a most enjoyable walk along this special drovers road.

This was the entrance to the Drovers road from the B road that led from Wilton Park. We completed the 3.5 mile walk in about 90 minutes and then had a coffee in the park cafe. We were back in Langholm by 1.00pm so the whole trip had only lasted for 3 hours, but the memory will linger for many years as we both enjoyed the walk immensely.

 

Walking the Tweed and Lunch in Melrose

We headed up to Tweedbank to meet up with our Edinburgh friends and also John and Sandria who were arriving from Dunbar. It all went to plan with Ken and Martin on time on the train and John and Sandria arrived just as the train drew in. The plan was to walk to the centre of Melrose for lunch via the River Tweed. It was a glorious day with not a cloud in the sky. Photo above is Tom showing off his potential new car. 

When we left the Tweed we passed by Melrose rugby ground.

The river was looking magnificent today

Jeremy Clarkson was in the Scottish Borders recently and he suggested that this area of Scotland was the most beautiful part of the UK. Who would argue against him when you look down the river Tweed.

Martin, Tom, and Niall climbing up the steepest part of the walk beside the river.

A more gentle section of the Tweed

An angler enjoying s spot of fishing and probably paying a fortune for it.

The group of 7 with Tom taking the photo

This time it was me taking the photo with Tom in it. We had a superb day with a lovely lunch in Marmions in Melrose. The food was excellent and well served by a charming lady. We walked back to Tweedbank station via the road which was not as enjoyable as the river as by this time it had got very hot.