Stobo

The walk this week was not the longest we’ve done a mere stroll of 11 miles but much more up and down the last few we’ve done.

We started off at Stobo Kirk a church that seems to had religious connections going back to AD 500-600 and an association with the ‘real’ Merlin (The website is a great rabbit hole if you’re interested in the ‘Scotland’, remembering that Scotland was not realised in its own right until the 900’s or thereabouts, of the period the period 500 – 700.)

The walk in lovely sunny, warm conditions had two distinct parts, the first a gentle climb through a glen (Extra 1) filled with various deciduous trees in their new spring foliage then through a gate that takes you out onto the classic moorland of the borders hills with a bit more climbing to get get us up to Hopehead cottage a loop back with more ups and downs (Extra 2) brought us back to the nice glen with its shady trees and then back to the car in plenty time to get to the cafe at Dawyck an offshoot of the Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh.