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.

Week 11 and Getting out of Langholm (But not very far)

Another week and as my knee improves so does the miles walked. I started this week with a walk round Jenny Nobles Gill and was able to see the damage done to many beech hedges by the frost of a couple of weeks ago. This one is not as bad as many others around Langholm 

All the trees in the Parish Kirk grounds have been felled and when I went past this on Monday I thought it might be going to be made into a wood sculpture but it has since been cut right down to the stump.

On Tuesday I was back up in the Tarras valley and a most enjoyable walk from this bridge up to Lodgegill  

This is a lovely spot for swimming just next to the holiday cottage at Tarras Lodge

The upper reaches of the Tarras near Lodgegill

My route on Thursday took me to Castle O'er near Eskdalemuir and an early morning walk through the forest. This is just near the spot where the Black and White Esk meet and shows how much has been felled recently. 

The second half of this walk is along the B road to Eskdailmuir and it is very quiet and has lots of interesting places to see.

A natural amphitheatre at Over Rig that was used up to 2000 years ago for gatherings.

After my walk I had my Coffee break at a stone circle on the Prehistoric Trail

My Saturday walk was a 5 mile circuit at Canonbie to take in The Meeting of the Waters where the Esk and Liddel rivers meet.  

There was plenty of wildlife to be seen but only the Heron stays still for long enough to get a photo

During the walk I met the local farmers father and had a most enjoyable chat with him. He was not like most farmers and did not have any moans, except perhaps maybe a little more rain but he was having a good season as you can see by this crop of spring sown Barley. 

The river Liddel on the second half of my walk and perhaps my favourite stretch of both rivers. 

The Liddel railway viaduct in the distance

The Meeting of the Waters and a lovely place to sit for a while

I always sit in the seat put there by Langholm Rotary Club in memory of my good friend Alastair Davies who died far too early and would have gone right to the top in World Rotary. 

Canonbie Kirk

My week finished on Sunday morning with a walk along Lower Tarras. This area is much different from Upper Tarras and is quite marshy in places. It is much more enclosed and therefore there are many more different types of birds present.  

This marshy area near Lower Tarras bridge was earmarked a good number of years ago by Dr. Cat Barlow of the Making the most of the Moorland Project to be made into a pond. There were too many issues regarding planning permission but if the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve comes to fruition if and when we buy The Langholm Moor then this may be resurrected. Its a fabulous project and hopefully we will secure the funding. 

This is a fabulous reed bed and an interesting habitat for Reed Warblers and similar birds.

A fabulous old wooden suspension bridge and an old man

The river Tarras running crystal clear

Lyneholm Moss Walk near Westerkirk

Despite a cold wind it was a perfect day for walking and we selected this route which included a couple of miles on the Castle O'er road from Enzieholm Bridge and then a forestry track over Lyneholm Moss and Hill. Finding new routes in this area is quite difficult as we have walked many of them before. This was our first visit to Lyneholm Moss. It was good to have Niall back after his winter in Australia. Unfortunately it was only 3 of us today as John is playing a Golf tie, David is in Barbados, and Tom is still recovering from the flu. It turned out to be an excellent walk through the forest.  

Near where we left the road to go into the forest is this summer house sitting next to a small pond. On a nice day it will be a perfect place to sit in the sun. 

The forestry road.

After the forestry section we came through a couple of fields and this stile which has seen better days.

A view over the Esk Valley

These guys were very curious but kept their distance 

More views over the Esk Valley 

Our map of the route walked. By walking the road section first it was a fairly easy climb over the first 2 miles and then the forestry section was mostly downhill. We met Tom after our walk and headed to Whitshiels Cafe where we had a splendid lunch in record quick time. 

Castle O'er in the Rain

Only Tom, Peter, and myself today and the forecast for this morning was awful but we were determined to do this 5.5 mile walk despite the weather. The plan was to do the walk and then have a soup lunch back at Ardlui followed by a visit to Buccleuch Mill to see the many small companies now occupying the old mill.

Castle O'er Hill Fort which is the largest in the area.

I have added this old tree stump covered in Lichen and Moss for my friend Tom who is always interested in this. Unfortunately the bad weather and dark conditions did not help but this is quite spectacular. The weather was pretty awful so no more photos were taken but we enjoyed the walk and also enjoyed the home made soup provided by Gaye on our return to Langholm. We then headed to Langholm Initiative office for our trip round Buccleuch Mill at 2.00pm where we were joined by David who had missed the morning walk.  

Castle O'er & Bessie's Hill Walk

This was certainly the nicest day of the year so far and perfect for our walk up Eskdalemuir. This was taken at the site of a large iron-age Hill Fort at Castle O'er. This series of grassy earthworks, with obvious banks and dykes as well as traces of roundhouses in the centre dates back 2000 years. 

This is the view from the smaller fort at Bessie's Hill and clearly shows the Standing Stone Circle on the other side of the Esk.  

Castle O'er Fort at the top of the hill

From the Castle O'er fort you can see Tanlawhill Rig and this conical monument which is built with granite blocks and has a copper roof. Not sure what it is supposed to commemorate.

Much of the Esk Valley is covered in trees and will provide the Iggesund Board Mill at Workington with timber for many years to come. In my days with Atlasair they shipped consignments of Board products all over the world. 

Our walk finished with lunch at The Hub at Eskdalemuir. It is a lovely place for a meal stop and well worth a visit.