Two bulls near Hownam

I took a drive down to the Scottish border. I stopped in Kelso for a walk around and a bacon roll. It was dreich. I then drove on to Kirk Yetholm. There are two villages separated by a river and low-lying narsh. One is Kirk Yetholm and the other is Town Yetholm. They are both quite attractive villages arranged around a long green. The Pennine Way starts from Kirk Yetholm. I drove up behind Kirk Yetholm and along a dirty steep-sided valley with the plenty of cows in it. I was surprised to see so many cows still out grazing.

I had a drive up a longer valley with farm steadings set above the narrow floodplain until I got to a fairly boisterous ford where I decided to turn back. It must be pretty isolated up here when there has been a heavy snowfall.

I then drove on to Linton and Morebattle. They are also attractive villages, but not as nestled into the dramatically rising Cheviots as Kirk and Town Yetholm.

I stopped for a coffee at the community shop in Morebattle, and then proceeded up another valley leading into the Cheviots that went through a very small hamlet called Hownam. It is a very pretty valley and I was particularly taken by another even smaller hamlet called Chatto perched above the valley side. The road then quickly rises up onto more open moorland and it eventually took me past the best preserved Roman camps camps at Pennymuir. These are built at the side of Dere Street (the Roman road that runs to York), and apparently could accommodate 5000 Roman soldiers on the move. It’s a desolate windswept spot but I guess you’d be able to see the enemy coming.

It was a very interesting day and the sun came out before the wind turned to the north-west. I drove back down through Swinside and Oxnam arriving at Jedburgh before the drive back to Edinburgh.