St Cuthbert's Way Part I

When something is on your doorstep, it's easy to overlook. Saint Cuthbert's Way starts at Melrose and ends just down the coast at Holy Island. I've been meaning to walk it for more than ten years but kept postponing it for journeys further afield. Initially, it was to be a continuous walk of the sixty miles from start to finish, b-and-b-ing or hosteling en route but now I'm content to do it in sections even if it means somewhat circuitous bus journeys before and after each section.

Melrose Abbey

The first leg is from Melrose Abbey up the fairly steep and, after our recent weather, very muddy path to the saddle between the East and Middle Eildon hills. The cold northerly wind was still blowing but at least it was behind me. Once over the hump and into the lea of the big hills, the going was easier and the wind chill factor considerably less.

Dark Ruberslaw ( Blog 06/04/2015)

Past the Siller Stane at the foot of the East Eildon then through the woods towards Bowden. The distinctive call of the cuckoo, a herald of summer, carried through the trees from the slopes of Mid Eildon. belying the cold breeze.

Bowden is an attractive village with a restored pant well at its centre.

 A pant is a covered public well, once a widespread feature of towns but now relatively uncommon. A short deviation from the Way took me to Bowden Kirk once part Kelso Abbey. There is a memorial to a notable Bowden man, Sir Lauder Brunton who pioneered the use of amyl nitrate as a vasodilator in angina and digitalis in cardiac failure.

The path got muddier as I followed the banks of the Bowden burn into Newtown St Boswells – a town that was “new” in the 1600's. The time scales in this part of the world are very long.

The path was fringed with spring flowers – lady's smock, viper bugloss, primroses and dog violets.

A diversion across the Tweed takes you to the secluded Dryburgh Abbey, a foundation by Praemonstratensians or White Canons in 1130. Sir Walter Scott is buried here.

Dryburgh Abbey

 Lore has it that his horse drawing his funeral bier stopped at his favourite view en route to his burial (Blog 07/05/2015) 

The Way continued through a small glen to the banks of the Tweed and followed the river to St Boswells.   A deal of splashing in some overhanging undergrowth made me think of the otters that are regularly seen on the Tweed but it turned out to be mallards involved in some anatine dispute.

I did see a pair of goosanders as well as the mute swans and the mallards

Goosander

St Boswells has a great cafe cum bookshop... The Main Street Trading Company... a relaxing place to wait for the bus home.

www.mainstreetbooks.co.uk 

 The Eildons above the Tweed at St Boswells