Walking in the Scottish Borders

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.

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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
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

Updates

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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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