Traditional Family Photo of the Graham Clan

Whenever we come to USA to visit Fraser and his family we always take a family photo on the day we depart home. The kids are growing up so fast and we were very sad at leaving them. This has been our quietest ever trip with no trips to Utah or weekends away. We are getting older so a quiet time suited us and weekends are taken up with sporting events with the kids. I walked my trusty Golden Retriever friend Sammy at least twice a day. He is such a loveable rogue, but very good natured. Fraser is enjoying his new job with GM and will be heading off to Detroit for 4 days early tomorrow morning, but with the luxury of flying in GMs Corporate Jet.

Thistle Viaduct and Netherby Walk

It had to be a short early walk today as Tom had to go to Dumfries for a funeral at 12.30pm so I took Tom to Kirkandrews where I had reconnoitred on Sunday to do a 3.5 mile walk over the Thistle Viaduct and through Netherby Estate. It was an area we had never walked before and it was a most enjoyable 90 minute walk. This is the Thistle Viaduct which was on the old Waverley line from Edinburgh to Carlisle.

Its amazing to think its only a few miles south of Langholm and neither Tom or myself had ever walked over it until this week but of course regularly crossed it when the train to Carlisle operated 60 years ago. 

Once over the Thistle Viaduct we followed the railway line for a few hundred yards and then turned onto this farm lane which was extremely muddy.

We joined a narrow road which then took us to the main road between Penton and Longtown. This signpost is to Moat where my father was born and where to be honest I don't think I have ever been. I must explore it sometime soon just to see where my father was brought up as a boy before he moved to Rowanburn.

This is Carwinley Mill now converted to a lovely house on the Carwinley Burn

Just above the Mill is this pond which must have been used to provide water to the mill. There now looks to be some holiday homes round it and it is a lovely place to visit. 

A bit of the old mill machinery

Only about half a mile of the walk was on the main Penton to Longtown road and we soon headed down in to Netherby estate once we reached the North Lodge. This is Netherby Hall which is fast becoming a very popular place for holidays and they are at present converting old stables into holiday flats. 

The Suspension Bridge at Kirkandrews and it can swing about a bit when 2 large guys walk over it at the same time. 

Kirkandrews Church

Kirkandrews Tower. Long after the Roman withdrawal the parish lay at the heart of the "Debatable Land" between England and Scotland with neither country willing to take control. This legal and political vacuum allowed the notorious and lawless Graham Reiving Clan to terrorise the area. Even the establishment of the border line in 1552 did nothing to bring peace to the region. Eventually after the Union of the English and Scottish Crowns in 1603, King James intervened to rid Kirkandrews of the Graham Clan threat, by exiling some of them to distant areas including Ireland. Obviously he did not get rid of them all. 

This is the route of our short but very enjoyable and interesting walk.