An Eskdalemuir Walk and a new Shooting Range

Today's walk with Mike and Charlie was up in Eskdalemuir and took us up the Clerkhill Burn valley and up Wisp Hill. It was 7 years since I was last up this route and there has been a few changes since then. This is a new facility for a Shooting Range. It is the only non military Shooting Range of its kind in the UK and has been provided by a company called Gardner Guns for people who like to use very powerful rifles. More for competition shooting than sporting shooting.  

One of the many target areas. They range from a few hundred yards away to almost 2 miles. 

Eskdalemuir Village almost at the end of our walk.

This cottage is Mid Raeburn

The river Esk between Eskdalemuir village and Samye Ling Tibetan Centre

The Rae Burn valley

 

Raeburnfoot in the distance.

These yellow items are the long distance targets up Windshield Grain Valley with the furthest away one being almost 2 miles from the shooters base.

Mike and Charlie cross the Rae Burn. There is a Roman Fort very close to this farm but we did not have time to visit it today.

On my way up the valley to Eskdalemuir I stopped to take this photo of the mist over the forest.

My first walk of the day was a short one round the Lodge walks and this photograph of the Monument with clouds above and the mist below looked very spectacular and I am pleased I just managed to capture it at the right time. 

Clerkhill to Raeburnside

We started early today as rain is forecast for the afternoon. The starting point was Eskdalemuir Kirk and here are Peter & John inspecting a memorial to a former minister. 

The first part of the walk we followed the Clerkhills Burn and as we reached Windshield Rig we saw a huge number of Deer on the hillside next to the forest. They appeared to be one Stag and a huge following of his females. There are about 10 or 12 in this photo but there were a good few more lower down in the valley.

Here you can see the Stag surrounded by his females. I have never seen as many Deer together in our area before. 

It is 4 years since I last walked this route and since then a new fence has been put up so this diverted us from the route we intended to take and we had to climb up to the ridge and then follow the fence until we reached the summit Wisp Hill. I am not a lover of Barbed Wire Fences and the people who put them up should place stiles at certain points to allow walkers better access. 

We dropped back down to Raeburnside which is a very remote place to live with a very bad road leading to it.  

This is the White Esk as we approach the village of Eskdalemuir 

Eskdalemuir Kirk

Our route today. we finished our walk before the rain and then headed to The Eskdalemuir Hub for lunch where we were the only customers. This will be John's last walk for 3 weeks as he soon heads of to USA for an Eastern Seaboard Cruise to celebrate his 70th Birthday.

Eskdalemuir Forest Road

This road which cost taxpayers £5 Million is almost 3 miles long and enables Timber Lorries to avoid the village of Eskdalemuir and Samye Ling Tibetan Centre as they head towards Lockerbie and the M74. We walked the route today and not one Timber Lorry used it. It would seem the government are happy to build an expensive detour avoiding a small village but wont do anything to stop 300 quarry wagons a day taking a longer journey to avoid Langholm. This photograph taken includes Elliot Harkness from Hawick who joined us on our Monday walk for the first time today.