Walking in the Scottish Borders

Cheviots, Tweed, Ettrick, Moffat and Manor hills

By Ronald Turnbull

ISBN

9781786310118

Availability

Published

12 Aug 2020

Reprinted

23 Jun 2022

Edition

First

Pages

256

Size

17.20 x 11.60 x 1.15cm

Weight

280g

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Guidebook presenting 45 day walks and one long distance route in the Scottish Borders. The day walks cover five areas: the Cheviots, Tweeddale, the Ettrick Hills, Moffat Hills and Manor Hills. The walks are a mixture of high and low level routes and can be fully customised using multiple variants.

Seasons

Year-round. For hillwalking, the best times of all are April-June and September. Winter hillwalking under snow can be arduous, but very rewarding in good conditions and if correctly prepared and equipped.

Centres

Wooler, Kelso, Melrose, Peebles, Moffat

Difficulty

Walks range from easy low-level walks, through smaller hills, to moderately challenging grassy hills at 600-750m (200-2500ft). Walks are graded to aid planning.

Must See

The Cheviot and its Hen Hole; Hart Fell and its Beeftub; White Coomb and its Grey Mare's Tail waterfall; River Tweed; bird-infested cliffs at St Abbs; ruined abbeys; Eildon Hills; St Mary's Loch; Reiving-era towers and bastles

ISBN

9781786310118

Availability

Published

12 Aug 2020

Reprinted

23 Jun 2022

Edition

First

Pages

256

Size

17.20 x 11.60 x 1.15cm

Weight

280g

Overview

This guidebook provides 45 day walks in the Scottish Borders. Separated into six sections, these walks are divided between the north and south Cheviots, Tweed, Ettrick, Moffat and Manor hills and feature main centres including Wooler, Kelso, Melrose, Peebles and Moffat. The guide's seventh section outlines long distance routes, including a walk along the Border from Gretna to Berwick-on-Tweed.

The Scottish Borders are rich in both history and geology. These walks explore many historical sites, from Iron Age forts on hillsides to bastles and towers dating from the Border Reivers era. The stunning and varied scenery is a result of complex geological processes; a visit to Dobb's Linn showcases preserved fossils, while the coastline at St Abbs Head features iconic folded rock formations which are home to a myriad of birds including guillemots.

Each walk features 1:50,000 OS mapping, comprehensive route description and plenty of information about points of interest along the route. The walks are graded and can be easily customised with alternative start points, route variants and shortcuts. The guide's introduction offers plenty of practical information about how to get there and where to stay, while the appendices list useful contacts and tourist information centres.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Map key

Overview map

Introduction

The borders of the Borders

Land of ballads

Geology of the Scottish Borders

Wildlife

When to walk

Getting there

Getting around

Accommodation

Maps

Access

Safety in the hills

Using this guide

1: The Cheviots (south)

Walk 1 Shillhope Law from Alwinton

Walk 2 Windy Gyle

Walk 3 Linhope Spout

Walk 4 Ingram hillforts

Walk 5 A Hedgehope Horseshoe to The Cheviot

2: The Cheviots (north)

Walk 6 Akeld to Humbleton Hill

Walk 7 The Cheviot: Hen Hole and Bizzle Hole

Walk 8 Newton Tors

Walk 9 Yeavering Bell

Walk 10 Forts for the day: Great Hetha and Ring Chesters

Walk 11 Yetholm to The Schil

Walk 12 Staerough Hill

Walk 13 Grubbit Law and Wideopen Hill

Walk 14 Dere Street to Chew Green

3: The Tweed

Walk 15 Ford to Roughting Linn

Walk 16 Horncliffe to Norham

Walk 17 St Abb’s Head

Walk 18 Kelso and River Teviot

Walk 19 Roxburgh village and viaduct

Walk 20 Rubers Law

Walk 21 Waterloo Monument

Walk 22 Dryburgh Abbey and the Tweed

Walk 23 Tweed and Eildon

Walk 24 A Melrose Ramble

4: Yarrow and Ettrick

Walk 25 Bowhill: Duchess Drive

Walk 26 Ettrickbridge and Dryhope Tower

Walk 27 Broadmeadows to the Minchmoor Road

Walk 28 Yarrow to Glengaber Hill

Walk 29 St Mary’s Loch

Walk 30 Loch of the Lowes and Peniestone Knowe

Walk 31 Bodesbeck Law

Walk 32 Ettrick Head Horseshoe

Walk 33 Selcoth Burn and Potburn Hass

Walk 34 Croft Head and Capel Fell

5: Moffat Hills

Walk 35 Loch Skeen and White Coomb

Walk 36 Dob’s Linn to Loch Skeen

Walk 37 Hart Fell

Walk 38 Devil’s Beef Tub

Walk 39 Devil’s Beef Tub from Moffat

Walk 40 Gameshope circuit

6: Manor Hills

Walk 41 Traquair: the Raxed Thrapple

Walk 42 Dun Rig and Glen Sax

Walk 43 Cademuir Hill and the Tweed

Walk 44 Pykestone Hill from Drumelzier

Walk 45 Broad Law

7: Longer walks and expeditions

Walk 46 Walking the Border: Gretna to Berwick

Other long routes

St Cuthbert’s Way

Moffat to Peebles

Wooler to Carter Bar

Borders Abbeys Way

Southern Upland Way (east)

Berwickshire Coastal Path

John Buchan Way

Cross Borders Drove Road

Annandale Way

Appendix A Route summary table

Appendix B Important information and facilities by area

Maps

Maps

This book uses OS Landranger mapping at 1:50,000 scale. This is clear and accurate; its one drawback is that it doesn’t mark field boundaries (walls and fences), which are such a useful guide in the featureless higher ground. The mapping in this book is best used for navigation alongside more detailed maps, and there are many options available.

Ordnance Survey Explorer maps are at 1:25,000 scale, with excellent contour detail. They show paths and forest rides, although these do not always correspond with what’s on the ground. Their major advantage, if you’re planning routes in England, is that they mark the CRoW open-access land (see Access).

For the area it covers (Section 1 in this book) Harvey’s Cheviot Hills at 1:40,000 is the best map there is. As well as being compact and waterproof, its path markings correspond with what’s on the ground.

Various open-source and free maps are available for smartphones and GPS gadgets. I would not rely on these for navigating in hill country, as their contour detail is neither detailed nor accurate. The Viewranger app is one way of gaining OS mapping (in both Landranger and Explorer styles) for a modest annual subscription.

Updates

January 2022

2022 reprint route updates

1011 Reprint 2022 (11.714 MB)

November 2020

Route 40 – new deer fence

A new temporary deer fence has been built by the Borders Forest Trust to keep sika deer out of their young wildwood. It intersects Route 40 with gates in the right places.

After the first steep climb onto Garelet Hill, head south to the col just below. Here the new fence follows the broken wall marked on Explorer maps. Go through the gate in it, and continue to right of the fence.

On the shorter return route, turning down the glen from the tin hut; after crossing Donald's Cleuch burn, you again meet the new deer fence, which again has a gate in it.

It seems likely that the new fence, when competed, won't interfere with the longer route over Molls Cleuch Dodd, and if it does, will probably have a gate at a helpful point.

October 2020

Rubers Law Walk 20

Walk 20

The original route up Rubers Law has been enclosed in high fencing for red deer – and these semi-wild animals are unsafe to walk among. The following route has been kindly suggested and approved by the farmer at Whitriggs.

After passing along Denholm Dean, the track beyond it runs southwest to end at a lane. Turn left to the lane junction where the road to right is signed for Bonchester Bridge. However, keep ahead for another 50m. As the lane bends left, take a track ahead into a small wood. Cross a shallow ford to gates at the wood edge.

Take the left-hand gate, and go uphill to left of a wall to a gate. In the next field, slant up left, north of east, to a wall gate. (But the field has livestock, instead head left along its foot then up the side.) Through the gate, head up to the left of the wall, through another gate and again to the left of a wall. As the field opens out, slant up right to a gate at its top right corner. This leads into open, heathery ground. Pick your way among rocky outcrops to Rubers Law's summit trig point. (Working round to the left to approach the summit from the north will let you arrive up a scrambly little cliff.)

September 2020

Walk 17 St Abb’s Head

Thank you to Mick Borroff for the following information.

Near Westloch House there is a preferred waymarked and stiled footpath with clear signing that indicates that it should be taken to avoid the farmyard and the climb over the double-gate to access the lane back to Coldingham.

P107 Above a loch-side house, join a gravel track up to a gate; bend right and in 300 metres bend right again to another gate marked 'Farmhouse only'. Follow the footpath sign along the track for 100 metres and turn left over a waymarked stile into a grassy field, and over two further stiles to emerge through a hedge on the lane beyond. Follow the lane gently downhill to Coldingham…

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Ronald Turnbull

Ronald Turnbull writes regularly for TGO, Lakeland Walker, Trail and Cumbria magazines. His previous books include Across Scotland on Foot, Long Days in Lakeland and Welsh 3000ft Challenges. He has written many other Cicerone guides, including Walking in the Lowther Hills, The Book of the Bivvy and Not the West Highland Way.

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