Tom's Shortcut has all gone to Pot

Our walk today took us up to Westerkirk and the site of a brand new factory in the hills. It's a spectacular setting and this secret site is for producing legally a substance that is normally illegal but now for the benefit of the NHS. We were very impressed with the factory or giant greenhouse and it should create a lot of employment in the area when it opens. 

The bit on the right looks as if it is going to be a huge reservoir for water. These plants will need loads of heat and water.

Tom asked that we did not go right to the top of the hill to the wind turbines as he had a bowling match later in the day and to be honest I was quite pleased to agree with him for once. 

This is the road up and it's a gentle climb for most of the way.

Tom and I argued about the best way to get round the factory site. There was a road right in front of it but Tom said there would be a locked gate. He decided against my better judgement that we would follow a fence and get onto the top road. This was the shortcut from Hell and it took an age to get less than half a mile. It was  such rough ground and we both fell a couple of times. We eventually came to a high fence and that had to be followed until eventually we came to a gate we could get over. We were both knackered by the time we had completed the shortcut and we discovered the gate was not locked. It will be when the factory is up and running and then the site will be very secure.

The wind turbines at the top of the hill.

Looking up the valley at the start of the walk

This was a lovely copse of trees with loads of Rowan

Looking across the Esk valley.

 Another view of the Esk valley. We completed 6 miles but that half mile shortcut had nearly finished us and the last 2 miles of the walk were completed in silence.