Day 52: Scotland

Distance: 18.0 miles
Days-late: 1

Sorry for being a day late on the post. I should have been writing this last night, but the telly had both snooker and a crazy game show ("can you beat The Cube?"). What could I do? At least they weren't showing darts too - I'd have never gone to sleep! By the time I was ready to write it was late, I was tired, and knowing the next day is a rest day, I decided to procrastinate.


Our bog avoidance strategy described in the last post worked out perfectly. Kate, who runs the Byrness Hotel, left some cereal and milk out for us so we could get up early, and be on the road before breakfast time. We were walking the A68 before seven o'clock. As we'd hoped, that early on a Saturday there was hardly any traffic. We walked through another grey misty day past the Catcleugh reservoir (that's the picture above) and past our last cloud covered English hill.


We walked a long uphill to the pass at Carter Bar, rounded the top, saw heather in the hills, heard pipers piping, and walked into Scotland! Well, not really, there were no pipers. But there was a cool big rock.


By the end of our nine miles on the A68 the road was getting busier, and we were happy when we were able to get off of it. We walked down a track, and found ourselves in front of this place, Edgerston House.


It was built by the Rutherford Clan back in the 1695. They were able to keep up the house, and keep improving it, despite some serious fights with the English, and other clans. It wasn't until they had to do battle with the tax man that they lost the house, selling it in 1921. It was sold again, probably to somebody pretty rich, in 1980. It's s pretty sweet place. The back yard includes its own small loch.


Navigating in Scotland is a bit different than we're used to. In England, the maps have dashed green lines that mean "public right of way"; we planned our walk to follow these lines. The law says that the land owners have to allow paths along these rights of way. But in Scotland, instead of right-of-way laws, there are right-to-roam laws. As I understand, you can basically walk anywhere you like, as long as you don't get in the way or break anything. In theory that sounds great, but in practice it means that the maps don't have green lines. Instead, there are paths and tracks marked, but all the marks mean is that a path or track was there at the time this area was last surveyed; by now things may have changed. So picking out a path is more difficult. And we're not sure how to handle some situations on the ground. In England, it's clear: if there is a right of way, you can go there. But I don't know how things work here. For example, in from the Edgerston House we were exercising our right to roam (ok, we were lost), and figured out that we needed to walk down the path by the loch, and that would get us back to our track. But across the path was a sign, "private". What to do? There was no one around, so we just went anyway - but I'm still confused about how right-to-roam and "private" fit together here.


Here's some crazy looking Scottish skull-head sheep looking our way. They freaked Dawn out, "creepiest sheep ever!"


We also came across a herd of highland cows with calves. The cows we're used to are docile, slow moving things, with a special respect for Dawn, so we feel safe around them. But these cows were downright frisky, the whole herd moved from place to place at a pretty good trot. More like how I think of bison moving than cows. They kept looking at us, then running somewhere, then looking at us some more. A herd of big, really big, animals with big, really big, horns is scary when they're moving fast and looking at you! We tried to look non threatening, made sure not to get between any cows and calves, and got through their pasture as quick as we could while they thundered to and fro.


The look of the countryside changed when we crested the pass from England into Scotland. North of Hadrian's wall, England is a sparsely populated, wild, and rugged place. So far, the Scottish Borders is gentler and greener, with smaller rolling hills, and more people.


Jedburgh is a beautiful town, and made for my favorite rest day so far. There's a lot of history here, so we picked out the two things we wanted to see: the Mary Queen of Scots house and museum, and the Jedburgh Abbey. Mary only stayed in the house here for a month, but her visit is still to this day a super big deal here. The house is a three story monolith, built to withstand attack, since back in the sixteenth century rival clans, or, worse, the English, would come calling from time to time.


It's been converted to a museum all about the life of Mary Stuart. Really well done and super interesting. The only bad part is that a bus load of old people got dumped in for a half hour or so, clogging up the stairs and small rooms. They were speaking some language that I didn't understand - we think it might have been Danish.


I love the dancing King dude in this close up of a seventeenth century needlework thingy. It was in the museum because Mary's hobbies included needlepoint, dealing with Scottish nobility, and scheming to claim the throne of England. Though that all ended with Elizabeth I imprisoned her for 19 years and then had her beheaded. Apparently, the beheading took swings of the axe. According to a report taken at the scene, the first cut worked, "saving one piece of gristle". The things you learn at a museum! I also learned that the first thing you do with a severed head is take an impression, and make a mask. Here's Mary's:


The Jedburgh Abbey was a beautiful serene ruined abbey. The thing that really struck me is that the church, spectacular even in ruin, took 120 years to build, and that's typical for many of the big old buildings we've seen. So not only did the designer not see the results of his design, even his children wouldn't see it completed.


Here's me and one of the brothers, contemplating this sort of deep mystery.


I guess on account of the rain and early hour, Dawn and I were the only ones in the Abbey this morning. It was something to have that space all to ourselves. Dawn noticed a railing up high, and then a door to a spiral staircase that you could use to climb to the first level up. The stairs were tight and claustrophobic for a tall guy like me, but we went up and checked it out.


Tomorrow, we are back to walking! I hope the weather improves, the grey rain is getting a little old. I'd love to see some more of our March sunshine!

Location:Oxnam Rd,Jedburgh,United Kingdom