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. 

Up to Arresgill and Back

This was our destination today from a start at Wauchope Schoolhouse. It was a 5.5 mile round trip on mostly forestry roads. This is what used to be the farm at Arresgill but now its all forestry and the house is the home of our local GPs

The area is being heavily planted with conifers and new forestry roads have been made to get access to the new areas about to be planted. On our way back we met a small truck with 2 Portaloos on the back so these days the tree planters get all mod cons.

There are still a few sheep and lambs about mostly in the lower part of the valley and they will be the property of the farmer at Cleuchfoot.

The half way point and time for a Coffee

Ruger leading the way for a while like his pal Bowman used to do. He is not as efficient as Bowman and quite easily gets led astray if there is an interesting smell that distracts him.

One of the 2 Forestry wagons we met on our walk. It was a very pleasant walk lasting about 2.5 hours and the conversation was top class so the world has been well and truly put to right.

 

Arresgill and Westwater Walk

Another Wednesday and we are back into our regular walks. We started at Westwater and walked back along the farm road to the main Langholm to Lockerbie road and for a mile we had little or no traffic to contend with which is always good on a main road. This is the HaHa in front of the house at Westwater and very attractive it is. 

Back of the main road at Wauchope Schoolhouse we headed up the Arresgill road and the first farm is Cleuchfoot where the farmer has had so much hassle over Buccleuch Estates wanting him off the land. This looks a lovely flock of sheep and will be due to lamb in April. Tom and I enjoyed a good crack with the farmer and his wife and we left wishing him well for the forthcoming lambing season.

This is looking up the valley from just beyond Cleuchfoot up to Arresgill

Yours truly on the bridge at Cleuchfoot. It was a biting cold wind so wrapping up warm was a necessity unlike last week when it was a glorious day up in Stennies Valley

This is a new forestry road up the valley and the surface is excellent, although in wet weather it may be a bit muddy.

As we head back up the hill and back towards Westwater this house is at a place called Shaw. It used to be a shepherds cottage and over the last few years has been subject to renovation by and for Simon Richardson the Forestry Contractor. What a great job they have made of it. The work looks excellent and built to last for many years on a spectacular site with wonderful views. Hopefully it will be lived in soon and it will be a fabulous family home. 

Tom well wrapped up to keep warm against the biting wind.

Our 5 mile route along the 2 valleys.