Tractors on the road = 0; BMWs cutting us off on roundabouts = 3

Favourite place name: Skelmorlie

Left our B&B and headed north to Alloway – Robbie Burns Birthplace. There, we first admired the Bridge O’Doon and took photos of Burns Memorial from the bridge. Last time I visited it was wrapped up in scaffolding, so it was good to actually see the thing!

Brig O’Doon

Burn’s Memorial

The churchyard was open so we wandered in, and found William Burns (Robert’s father) right in front of the gate. There is a tribute poem by Burns on the back of the headstone. The Auld Kirk has lost its roof now, but the walls are still standing. There are insets into a path round the church with snippets from the Tam O’Shanter poem, featuring Tam seeing witches in the church who were, dancing to the music played by the devil on his bagpipes.

Alloway Auld Kirk

Burn’s eulogy to his father

We walked along Poet’s Walk which links the Burn’s Museum to the Cottage where he was born and lived until he was about 7 years old. The walk features weather vanes with scenes from various poems, mostly Tam O’Shanter being chased by the witches. There is also a large mouse and a concrete haggis (also large, for a haggis) reminding us of two other of Burns’ well known poems.

Robert Burns Birthplace

Curiosity satisfied regarding the cottage, we walked back and went into the Robert Burns Museum. This presented a well documented account of Burns and his poems, views and activities. And that he fathered at least 4 illegitimate children as well as rather a lot of legitimate ones, the last arriving on the day of his funeral. He was only 37 years old.

The Burns Birthplace Museum

I am not entirely sure why there is a portrait of Billy Connelly in the foyer of the Museum.

Portrait of Billy Connelly

Having done with Alloway, we drove north around Prestwick and then along the coast. In Ardrossan we were met by a marching band, raising money to address childhood illness, with a police escort on bicycles.

Ardrosssan Street march

We continued up the coast to Largs, intending to stop there for lunch, but it was very busy and there was nowhere to park. Being Saturday and there being a yachting regatta did not help! We continued then to Skelmorlie where we stopped for lunch at a cafe that turned out to be attached to an old folks home, but had the inestimable advantage of an empty parking lot.

We continued along the coast to Gourock admired Bute and Dunoon, then through Greenock and cut across to Kilmalcom and Bridge of Weir and thence to Glasgow Airport. Shirley had a room booked at the Holiday Inn, so I was able to sit with her for a while, and even have a shower, before heading for my flight.

It was sad to be leaving Scotland, it has been a very satisfying holiday!

Scottish Chips

Tractor count= 4; Favourite name Crossraguel

We set off for Culzean Castle and got there about 9:15 am, before anything except the gate opened. Culzean is the seat of the Earls of Cassilis and We drove to the Swan Lake, on which were two regal white swans and quite a few ducks, and saw the Aviary (now cafe) and Pagoda (ex-aviary). Then, we drove to the Walled Garden and explored – it has beautiful flowers, both wildflower mixes and domesticated things like roses and dahlias.

Flowers in the Walled Garden

More flowers

There is a huge long set of glasshouse on the south side of a thick, internally heated wall, so seven different types of grapes were ripening.

The glass houses

Outside the garden there was also an interesting ‘wildlife garden’, designed to attract hedgehogs, frogs and things. The main gate to the garden was designed to be admired upon approach from the House, we thought.

Gateway to Walled Garden

Having photographed everything of interest in the garden, we drove round the garden to the main car park at the Deer Park and photographed deer.

Deer

The Camellia House glasshouse, with camellias, strangely, is opposite the Deer Park, so we looked at that, too.

Inside the Camellia House

We walked on to the main House/Castle, and admired the romantic setting and ‘vista’ as it appeared through the ‘ruined’ archway at the start of the viaduct that carries the drive up to the front door, which is actually on the north side of the house. By then it was about 11 am, so we detoured to a drink and snack in the Stables cafe.

Culzean Castle

Moving on to the House/Castle itself, we explored thoroughly and took a lot of photos, especially of the Adam ceilings, that resemble those of Mellerstein and Floors which we were not able to photograph.

An Adam Ceiling

The centrepiece of the house is the circular drawing room, which hangs above the cliffs facing west. It, too, had a lovely ceiling.

Round Drawing Room Ceiling

It is linked to the rest of the house by an impressive oval staircase. Under the Drawing room, and also circular is now a Gift Shop! We bought a few things.

The Oval Staircase from above

We exited via the kitchen (huge) and strolled over to the Home Farm, where we did more gift shopping, watched a video about the estate and then had some lunch (soup and bread).

The Home farm building

Having spent over four hours on the estate, we thought that was enough and decided to drive on to the south. Thus we headed for Maidens and Turnberry stopped just out of Turnberry to attempt to photograph Ailsa Crag and bought some blueberry chocolates. We avoided the Trunp Turnberry golf course and hotel. Large, white, imposing and apparently welcomed by the locals for bringing more employment and tourists.

Ailsa Crag

Heading north again, on a different road, we stopped in Kirkoswald to view Souter Johnny’s House (from a Burn’s poem) and booked in for dinner at the Souter Inn.

Souter John’s Cottage

A little further along the road we stopped to explore Crossraguil Abbey, just outside Maybole. Thus was founded by Earl Duncan of Carrick in the early 13^th century, but after damage during wars with England, most of the remaining structures date from late 14^th and 15^th century – although the Reformation Act in 1560 effectively ended monastic life.

Crossraguel Abbey

The last Abbot was a Kennedy and had a grand tower house built to live in rather than the old Abbot’s quarters, and an imposing Gate House.

The gatehouse

We continued on from here back to Maybole, got out some money as we needed to pay cash for our accommodation, and drove on the Croy Shores to photograph Culzean from the shore, but my camera was not up to it, Shirley’s telephoto lens did a better job.

Culzean Castle from Croy Shores

Then returned to the B&B to regroup, and met the enthusiastic young black Labrador and her elderly companion. We headed back out again later for dinner, the Souter Inn was rather busy and noisy, but I had a lovely salmon with vegetables, followed by a Knickerbocker Glory!

Tractor count today was 7; plus two diggers, a forklift and a really fast moving street-sweeper.

Favourite name on a street sign: Hough of Urr. The Urr is a river, not sure what a hough is.

It was really sunny when we got up, but somehow by the time we left Haltwhistle the sky had clouded over, although we avoided rain all day, apart from some drizzle while driving. There were even some sunny patches here and there. Our first stop was in Brampton and was spontaneous. Shirley’s father and brother watch cycle racing and Brampton will be on the tour of Britain race later this year – so there were bicycles in yellow crepe all over the place. We had to stop and take photos.

Bicycle in Brampton

Out next stop was in Castle Douglas. Despite being promoted as a food capital, we could not find an attractive looking place to catch a coffee on the main street and we also could not find anywhere to park. So we went into the Threave Gardens just out of town and I had a hot chocolate and ‘tiffin slice’ to hold me over until lunch. This was because out next stop was Threave Castle which did not appear to have any facilities. In fact, it was a half mile walk to the river and a boat ride to get to the island on which the castle stands.

Looking back along the path to the river

The river crossing, Threave Castle

The castle was built in the 14th century by Archibald ‘the Grim’ Douglas, so called because of his ‘grymme countenance in warfair’. It is somewhat decayed today, but was a four-floored defensible castle in its time. In fact, there was a whole village clustered round it, or so archaeological evidence suggests.

Artist’s representation on an information board

Now only the kitchen vault and the shell of the upper floors remain.

Inside Threave Castle

And nice views over the river.

The river from the castle

From there we continued north and stopped t a pub in St John of Dalry for a cheese and chutney sandwich for lunch. It was here that we saw the forklift trundle past.

St John of Dalry

We arrived in Maybole, which was hectic with traffic travelling to or from Ireland via the A77. Luckily our B&B is out of town on Culzean Road. We checked in, but then headed out again.

Our room

We went round the coast a little north to Danure Castle, the ancient seat of the Kennedy’s of Carrick, it dates from the 13^th Century with later modification, but has been a ruin since the 17^th century.

Danure Castle

Danure Castle from the north

We went back to Maybole, which is really run down, being dominated by the fast traffic and many shops are closed and faced with metal roller doors. However, there are a few interesting buildings: the local information centre

Maybole building

an old tower house dated sometime in the 16^th century.

Maybole Tower House

And other buildings

Maybole House

General Street View

We drove to nearby Kirkmichael for dinner at the pub, which was indeed excellent, and dessert was a difficult choice.

The Kirkmichael Arms

Dessert menu

Early night, replete.

The morning promised sunshine, with scattered clouds, and rain only moved in about 4 pm. Tractors seen on the road today = 3; favourite place-name = Birdoswald. Before we went out, I took some shots of the garden of place at which we are staying. It is very grand. It was once the Vicarage.

Ashcroft Guest House

The Front Door

Garden Bed with stone cat

Our first stop was the National parks Information Centre at Once Brewed, which appears to be within the village boundaries of Twice Brewed, not that there is much else there. Here we bought a parking ticket which would cover us for the whole day at any National Parl site, and found a useful brochure with a sketch of the walk we were to do later. From there, we headed to Housesteads Roman Fort, getting there as it opened to avoid most other tourists!

Housesteads is situated on the Wall, and a fair walk from the car park and Visitor Centre. That is it, on the horizon, about half a mile away.

Houseteads Fort

We made it up the hill, called in at a Museum and Shop on the way for a six minute orientation film, then strolled in through the vicus (not much visible) and in via the South Gate.

The South Gate from inside the fort

The fort is laid out like the other forts, a perimeter wall, Principia in the centre aligned facing the East Gate, with granaries to the north, praetorium (residence of commander) to its south and the infirmary behind it. The rest of the space is barracks, mostly. Housesteads is slightly different, as the North gate opened onto a steep hill, which eventually became unusable, so a Gate was set in the Wall to the east of the fort, which was accessed through the East Gate of the fort and along a track.

The North Gate

Here is an overview from one of the info boards, the upper picture is what it would have looked like and the lower shows the bits that have been excavated and are visible:

Overview of Housesteads

The fort is on a steep slope leading up to the drop-off on the north perimeter, thus although the principia and granaries are on roughly level ground, the praetorium is on a slope so had many steps and was an early split-level house.

Housesteads Praetorium

Having had enough of the ruins, we moved on to another exciting adventure. Just back down the road is Steel Riggs, from where we got access to the Wall Walk. Shirley walked from here back to Housesteads (about 3 miles) while I walked with her as far as Sycamore Gap (about a mile) then walked back to Steel Riggs and drove round to Housesteads. Trouble was, half or more of that first mile was almost vertical climbs! First, a gentle descent, then climb this hill.

Steel Riggs

The Wall runs along the top of these crags:

Peel and Highshields Crags

I was heading for Sycamore Gap, which is actually a double gap, the first hollow holds a milecastle and the second a Sycamore tree. There is a mound in between. Thus I had to descend to the milecastle, climb up again and descend to the tree. Then I walked back and did it all again in reverse.

Milecastle 39 next to Sycamore Gap

Between the Gaps

Here is a photo from Shirley’s camera, using a polarising filter.

Sycamore Gap

It was a lovely walk, but my knees hate me.

I managed to drive back to Housesteads uneventfully, only stalled once, the first time I’d driven a manual car in years. There I picked up some lunch and walked back up towards the Fort, but met Shirley near the Museum where we picnicked, she having found some lunch there. I wanted to take a couple more photos at the fort, bought a few things at the shop, and then we headed back to the car. Another half mile, down the slope and up the next…

Next stop was the fort at the west end of this central section of the Wall, Birdoswald Fort, 12.6 miles away. It was interesting in that there had been subsequent dwelling in the fort area, for which evidence existed, and in fact a small farm occupied the site until taken over by English Heritage, who use the buildings for a shop/ticket office, exhibition space and a residence. The latter is built on part of the foundations of a Roman ‘basilica exercitatoria’ or indoor drill and exercise hall. This is the only such structure identified in any auxiliary fort so far, in the Roman Empire, although they are known of from inscriptions and writers. It was located just to the north of the road coming through the west gate.

Birdoswald Information Board

Birdoswald claims to have the longest continuous stretch of the Wall, but it is a fairly boring stretch compared to Steel Riggs or Walltown, just receding straight and level into the east.

Hadrian’s Wall at Birdoswald

The rain started as we returned to the car, and having walked for miles, we called it a day and returned to Haltwhistle.

Our explorations on Tuesday started with a visit to the Roman Army Museum. It was great fun and informative. Now I know about contubernia and cohorts. We accidentally turned left instead of right out of the gate, so ended up at the Wallton Crags. Since we were there, we climbed the hill and admired a nice stretch of Hadrian’s Wall. In fact we walked beside it for a while, to see what was over the next hill. There we found a stretch of wall that was still quite tall.

Hadrian’s Wall

In the other direction, the wall was gone, but crags remain.

Walldon Crags

Just as we got back to the car, it started to drizzle and did not let up all day. We found the B6318 again and headed east to Vindolanda, a Roman fort and town. Here we had lunch, but had to walk the length of the site to find the busy cafe! After lunch and a quick look round the museum,I used the ladies and discovered:

Toilet twinning

About 2 pm, we joined a talk on site from a young archaeologist, Marta from Milan. That took about 30 minutes and then we explored.

The first, wooden, fort was built early in the occupation, between AD 74 and 85. There were nine forts built on the site, the first four built before work started on Hadrian’s Wall. It seems that each time a new legion or battalion or whatever, was posted here, they would tear down whatever was already there and build their own fort. As the military were not expert builders, it is likely that by the time a group left the buildings were ready for demolition anyway. The final few forts were fabricated in stone, and the last, a third century fort the remains of which are seen today, demonstrates varying degrees of skill in building. Some of the barracks look a bit rough, but the wall of the fort has survived reasonably well, although most of it could be from earlier forts, as there are places where changes are evident – for example moving the position of the west gate, and the extension of the perimeter wall to the south.

Fort Wall south west curve

One side effect of the periodic tearing down of older buildings is that the site would be re-prepared by adding a covering of clay, and this preserved the rubbish of the older fort. There have been many interesting discoveries of preserved material that has decayed at other sites more than 3000 shoes and sandals have been recovered, and a lot of textiles and leather artifacts. Most exciting has been the discovery of the Vindolanda tablets – letters and other written material that tell a lot about life in the fort.

Site stratification

Vindolanda itself is about a mile south of the Wall, and became a supply base for the soldiers actually patrolling on the Wall and living in the wall mile-forts. When the Romans finally left, the town did not disappear, there is evidence of occupation up to about the 9^th century. Then there was about 600 years of overgrowth before farmers moved into the area in the 16^th century. Stones were robbed from what was by now piles of rubble, to build farm houses and repair roads. In the 19^th century the site came to the attention of an antiquarian Curate, Anthony Hedley, and shortly after that was owned by John Clayton who also owned the Chesters site. Later, ownership passed to the Birley family who are still active in the Vindolanda Trust, set up to preserve and investigate the site.

This is the view from the west gate looking into the vicus (annex or civilian town outside the fort).

Road through the vicus

The fort from the north-west

Because it was raining we decided to head back to the guest house about 3:30, relaxed, and ate at a nearby pub.

Tractors seen on the road today = 5

Favourite town name of the day = Kirkwhelpington.

We headed south down the A68, which in years past was the Roman invasion route. We stopped not far down the road at Jedburgh to look at the abbey. It is probably the most complete of the Border Abbeys that we have seen. The church is at the top of a slope and the abbey cloisters are next to the church with the other buildings descending the slope to a stream, where there was once a corn mill for the Abbey. While the church walls are still at their full height there is no roof (except in part of the choir) and only the foundations of other buildings remain.

Jedburgh Abbey

There are two very narrow spiral stairs, one each side of the west door, leading up to a walkway above the doorway. I clambered up for a great view down the Nave.

The Nave from above the West Door

From Jedburgh we continued south on the A68, crossing into England at a high point in the road with a great view back to the Eildon Hills on the horizon.

View north from the border

While we were at the road-stop, a big coach arrived, whereupon a kilted bagpiper jumped out of his car, turned on a tape of a pipe band and proceeded to play along – to the delight of the Italian tour group.

We continued into England through the Northumberland National Park and down to Corbridge. Here, we raided the Information Centre for brochures and maps. Corbridge also has the remains of a Roman fort that became a town, so we went to have a look. Originally it was a campaign base, but as the Romans advanced into Scotland, it became a strategic military and civilian base. Over the years the buildings were dismantled and rebuilt and the road through it (the Stanegate) built up such that steps were required to get to it from earlier buildings. The granaries, that supplied the troops, still exist to just above floor level, showing the system of under floor ventilation to keep the grain dry.

Granaries at Corbridge

The whole site is a complex of stone walls and cobbled pathways. There has been selective subsidence where new buildings were built over filled in ditches of the earlier fort, giving an interesting wave to part of the site.

Corbridge building foundations

The prize of the finds from the site is the Corbridge lion, which is in the visitors centre.

The Corbridge Lion

It was lunchtime by the time we had looked around the Corbridge site so we headed back to the village for food. Unfortunately the coffee shop we picked was understaffed, so while the food was good, it took 45 minutes to get it. There was then a bridge to look at, over the Tyne, and an uphill walk back to the car through a tiny alley.

Bridge at Corbridge

Corbridge alleyway

The next stop was Chesters Roman Fort. It had also gone through some changes during the 300 plus years of occupation by the Romans. The site was excavated in the 19^th century and the gates and some of the interior buildings, and the bath house, have been uncovered. At least, their foundations and sometimes floors have. The aerial view from the Guide Book shows this best.

Chesters from the air

The North Gate is at the bottom, nearest the viewer, the South gate is in the shade of trees across the site. Between them is the administration building and to its left is the Commander’s residence. Beyond the Residence there are the remains of a corner tower and an interval tower on the south perimeter. There are two East Gates, the main gate is adjacent to and outside (north of) Hadrian’s Wall and there are the foundations of some barrack buildings between the east and north gates. The lesser east gate is south of the wall, hidden by a tree in the photo, and gave access to the bath-house, down the slope towards the river (upper left of picture). The bath-house is Chesters’ claim to fame, as it is the most complete among the Wall forts.

The south side of the main east gate is shown below with a bit of the base of Hadrian’s Wall attached, in the lower left of the picture. Our first bit of Wall! Further down the slope the wall went across the River Tyne and there is some stonework visible on the opposite bank.

Chesters main East Gate and bit of Hadrian’s Wall

Moving on to the bath house, this was built in two stages the large changing room and added steam room with its own heating system being later. The photo below is looking across the bath-house with the latrines in the left foreground, the changing room, with grass floor and arched recesses, beyond which was the later steam room, and the bath rooms in the distance to the left.

Chesters Bath House

The most important part of the fort was the administrative building, the Principia, within which the standards of the legion, were kept and also the site of the strongroom where wages and savings were secured.

Chesters Principia strongroom

We walked all round the site, so I have endless photographs of the foundations of the gates and barracks, the Principia and the commanding officers house, the Praetorium, with its extensive hypocaust system (underfloor heating). There is still a lot of the area within the fort not yet excavated, (or excavated but covered up again) and there is evidence of an annex or vicus, a civilian settlement, to the south of the fort.

The Chesters site also houses a museum, crammed with finds from many of the forts along the wall, collected by John Clayton (1792-1890) owner and excavator of Chesters and some other sites. An amateur archaeologist, he collected but did not record the finds in the way that archaeologists do today, so much information on positioning and stratification is unknown.

Chesters Museum

We continued along the B6318 passing various other sites in order to get to our accommodation, Ashcroft Guest House in Haltwhistle.

What a fascinating day!

We started off heading for Dryburgh Abbey, via Scott’s View. This latter is a view point from the road looking west towards the Eildon Hills, with the Melrose valley (and Abbotsford beyond) on the right

Scott’s View towards Melrose

and St Boswells on the left.

Scott’s View to the south of the Eildon Hills

Sir Walter Scott was very fond of this view, and stopped to admire it every time he went past. It is said that when his funeral cortege passed this way, his horses stopped to allow their master one last look at his favourite view.

A little further along the road was a sign to a Wallace Memorial, so we stopped and walked the half mile along a track to the huge statue of Wallace, looking out over the Tweed Valley. Apparently it was set up in 1814 by an eccentric landowner of the district (David Stuart Erskine, 11^th Duke of Buchan), who felt that local heroes should be celebrated. He also cleared up the Abbey site and romanticised it somewhat. Some of his ‘improvements’ like a garden and Cyprus trees in the Cloisters, have since been removed.

Wallace Statue

Dryburough Abbey is along the hill and down from Scott’s View and the Wallace Monument, at the side of and in a curve of the Tweed. It is essentially a dead end, as there is no way across the river here, hence the requirement to come via the ridge-line from a crossing further upstream. There is a fair bit of the Abbey left; despite its history of being sacked twice and burned down three times.

Dryburgh Abbey

There is a yew tree reputed to have been planted by the monks in the early 12^th century. It is looking rather elderly and in need of a pruning.

Ancient yew tree

There were some excellent pieces of carving, kept in a crypt off the cloisters, and the archway into the Chapter was also beautifully carved.

Chapter house doorway

Sir Walter Scott is interred, with various family members, in a remaining part of the north aisle. Also buried there were several of the Erskine family and Douglas Haig, sorry, Field Marshal Earl Haig of Bemersyde (commander in Chief of British forces in France and Flanders for much of WWI.

Tombs

It was a lovely peaceful spot, especially down by the river, where the chattering of the Tweed over pebbles in its course could be heard in the stillness.

The Tweed River at Dryburgh

However, we had other things planned, and drove back to Melrose to look over the abbey there. It was a cruel contrast, as there were two tour buses in and the grounds were anything but peaceful. However there was probably more of the main church remaining than at Dryburgh, but little more than a ‘footprint’ of the rest of the Abbey buildings.

Melrose Abbey

There was an intact spiral stair up to the roof of the south transept. From there we had a close view of the ‘famous’ bagpipe playing pig.

Which will not upload.

There was also a good view over part of Melrose.

Lunch was next on the agenda, followed by a short drive to Newstead, apparently the oldest inhabited village in the valley. There we met up with a walk leader and several other walkers to go on a walk to learn about the Trimontium Roman fort. This was a fabulous experience. The leader was obviously enthusiastic about the Roman occupation and keen to share his knowledge. There is very little above ground to see at Trimontium – in a barley field outside Newstead – but in its day it was a forward fort of the occupation and a supply depot when the Romans were moving north and building the Antonine Wall (part of which we had seen at Falkirk).

The West Annex with the west wall where the trees are now

Abandoned around 120 AD as Roman troops were diverted to other provinces and the Roman withdrawal began, it was soon forgotten. That is, until the advancing railway network started turning up interesting finds. The site was partially excavated by James Curle (a solicitor and amateur archaeologist) betweem1905 and 1910. His report, ‘A Roman Frontier post and its people’ running to 450 pages became a standard reference work. There was some more excavation in 1947, but it is aerial photography that really showed the extent of the site, and up to nine associated temporary camps. Selective investigation by Bradford University from 1989to 1998 has yet to result in a publication (except perhaps in obscure academic journals).

Map of the fort

One thing that is evident in the landscape is the ’amphitheatre’. Archaeological excavation has confirmed an amphitheatre existed, which was large enough for about 1500 spectators. There has been some slumping of the site, and filling of the bowl, but there is a clear dip in the ground. It is not so obvious in a photograph, and attention is drawn to the viaduct in the background (more on that later). It is easier to see perhaps from the viaduct, (see second photo) and consider that the road, marked by the hedge, cuts through the western side of the amphitheatre. This is the most northerly Roman amphitheatre ever found.

Amphitheatre in foreground

Amphitheatre from the Viaduct

There was some written evidence of the remains of an ancient bridge below the Fort, but no physical evidence has been found, although the lines of roads indicates that it may have been between the two existing road bridges (1780 and 1974) downstream of the railway viaduct (1864). Looking upstream from the Viaduct shows how well sited Trimontium was, with the steep sides of the narrowest part of the Tweed valley for miles, defending the northern flank of the Fort. The fort is off to the left, the dip of the amphitheatre (outside the walls) is visible at the very left of the photo.

Narrowed Tweed Valley

As a complete aside, we also walked over the old road bridge, which gave a marvellous view of the railway viaduct.

Viaduct from old bridge

That we were able to get onto the railway viaduct itself, and walk all the way over, was because the walk leader has a key to the gate blocking the viaduct from normal access… one can only get onto it by going on this walk! Looking at the road bridges from the viaduct:

The road bridges from the viaduct

We then walked along the abandoned railway embankment which is near the line of the old Roman road, Dere Street, to the east of the fort. We then turned to walk along the southern boundary, currently a farm track, and back to our starting point, west of the west annex. The line of trees is where the west wall and gate would have been.

Back to the start

Areas outside the walls of a fort inhabited by service providers were called annexes, and Trimontium is unusual in that there were annexes on all four sides. These were also protected by ditches, while the fort at peak defensiveness had several ditches and a substantial wall: a turf rampart on a cobble base 13.5 metres across and about 8.4 metres high.

I had no idea that there was a Roman fort anywhere near here, so it was a real learning experience, and a great introduction to the forts of Hadrian’s Wall which we will be visiting over the next few days! It was also about three hours of walking, after a morning spent exploring ruined abbeys, so my feet and knees feel very walked on.

We started the day with kippers and eggs for breakfast, then headed for Abbotsford. This is the home of Sir Walter Scott, the renowned romantic author of the 18^th to 19^th centuries. He had the house built and was active in laying out and planting the gardens.

Abbotsford

We took the audio tour that was narrated by an actor portraying Scott, which gave us a feel for his affection for the house and his family. The study and library housed a huge number of books and collectables, what Scott called ‘gambesons’. The entry hall also had a huge range of objects, while the ‘armoury’ housed swords and guns. The study had a mezzanine level of yet more books, and a bolt hole spiral stair to his bedroom, that Scott could use to avoid visitors. The drawing room was his wife’s domain, and was papered with interesting Chinese motif wall-paper. The house is also noted for being the first house to employ gas lighting.

Abbotsford Drawing Room

The dining room was redecorated some generations later, so while we saw cream above light wood panelling the original decor was a much darker crimson walls and gold highlighted ceiling with darker panelling.

Abbotsford Dining Room

Scott died in his dining room, having set up a camp-bed there when he was to ill to climb the stairs, so that he could see and hear the Tweed River, which the house overlooks. We wandered down to the river after our tour.

The Tweed at Abbotsford

Having explored everything, including the Chapel, we moved on. We headed back past Melrose to another stately home, but on the way found Greenknowe Tower. Owned by Historic Scotland, this is simply a shell of a Tower House built in 1581.

Greenknowe Tower

Next was Mellerstain House, seat of the Earls of Haddington and a masterpiece of the architect Robert Adam. His father, William Adam designed the two wings, started in 1725, with Robert completing the central section from 1770-78. The whole of the central block of rooms is typical (apparently) of Robert Adam’s neo-classical style. The rooms are large, one set decorated with portraits of the family horses and dogs, but mostly with family portraits. The most striking feature is the ceilings. Hard to describe, except that they look like Wedgewood! We were not allowed to take photographs inside. The guidebook has some illustrations, but they only show the ceilings incidentally to the furnishings.

Mellerstain House

The main rooms looked out over a lake, and there were some rather nice gardens on the terrace between the ornamental stairways down to the lawns.

View to Lake, Mellerstain

Garden at Mellerstain

We lunched at the Mellerstain cafe, but it was very basic and not very interesting!

We moved on again, to Kelso. Here we found Kelso Abbey, but were surprised at how little was actually left of it, really only the west door area.

Kelso Abbey

That section does still reach up quite high, best seen from a distance, from beyond the War memorial and the much newer mausoleum of the Dukes of Roxburghe.

Kelso Abbey 2

We visited the Kelso Pottery, which was very interesting. The potter explained his local sources of different coloured clays and his decorative and firing techniques, as well as some comment on his inspirations from archaeological finds and the natural environment.

Nearby Floors Castle is the seat of the Dukes of Roxburgh, the current is the tenth Duke. It is a huge building, more stately home than Castle, although some rather daft battlements and turrets and a ghastly carriage shelter were added to the otherwise elegant facade. The photo only shows the centre part of the front.

Floors Castle Entry

Again, no photography was allowed inside, but I have the guidebook. What struck me here were the family portraits and photos on display and the clearly used nature of the furnishings! The house is only open to the public for part of the summer, the rest of the time the Duke and family move back into the main rooms. There was a set of Belgian 18^th century tapestries that had been cropped to fit the drawing room, one cut in half because of a central doorway! Also notable was the ‘Bird Room’, the 6^th Duke (mid to late 19^th century) collected over 400 stuffed birds including an American passenger pigeon (now extinct). Elsewhere in the Castle were some examples of the large (over 50 pound) salmon landed by members of the family.

Courtyard, Floors Castle

On our way back to Melrose we fortuitously found a signpost to the Borders Berry Farm, including the crucial information that it was still open (it was after 5 pm by then). So we negotiated the narrow lane and difficult rail bridge to get to the fields. There, we went out into the canes and picked ourselves some raspberries, and ate most of them when on the road again.

Raspberries

Venison for dinner a short while later. Yum.

Our first priority today was getting out laundry dealt with, and so we made our way to Jedburgh and left it all with an obliging laundress, who instructed us to return at 1 pm to pick it up. We filled the time with a visit to Mary Queen of Scot’s House. It wasn’t her house, but she is documented as having stayed there for a month in 1566. She had gone to Jedburgh to oversee the District Court, and also to visit her advisor the Earl of Boswell at Hermitage Castle. She also became ill, and nearly died, while staying at Jedburgh. Apparently later when in captivity in England, she was known to reflect ‘Would that I had died at Jedburgh’.

Mary Queen of Scots House

Over a cuppa at a local cafe, we decided to visit a glassworks near Hawick (apparently pronounced ‘hoick’) to fill in time before 1 pm. It was only about 10 miles away, so we headed over. We found that the glassware was beautiful, but not overly elaborate, and each bought a small memento. On the way back we still had some time so stopped at the Jedburgh Woollen Mill, which turned out to be a tourist trap selling all sorts of touristy stuff, as well as some decent woolly things, but no mill.

Having picked up our washing, and seeing as it was still raining, we headed west to visit ‘the oldest inhabited house in Scotland’, Traquair. The core of the house is the hunting tower, there is uncertainty about when it was first built, but there was a hunting lodge on the site in1107. The core may date from then and is the left side of the main building (excluding the top floor). In 1628 there was an expansion and remodelling of the house around the core tower, and 1695 to 1699 saw the wings added; the then Earl had 17 children to accommodate.

Traquair House

The fortunes of the family went downhill thereafter as they were Catholic Jacobites, and thus the house has not been radically updated since, although electricity did reach the house in the 1960’s. The house has a Priest’s room with a bolt hole, allowing the priest to escape downstairs and out into the woods if searchers appeared at the front of the house. After 1828 when Catholicism became legal, a new Chapel was consecrated in the south wing.

Traquair Chapel

There have been discoveries during maintenance operations, for example the roof was sagging in the Upper Drawing room. When it was removed to be replaced, the original painted beams were found. Sections have been left exposed to show them off.

Ceiling Beams

Upper Drawing Room

There were interesting outbuildings to the House, now housing crafts-people, jeweller, woodcarver and artist. One building housed the 1745 Cafe where we had soup and bread for lunch.

The 1745 Cafe

The landscape through which we drove was full of interest and contrasts, although it was raining fitfully all day. Our trip from Hawick back to Jedburgh, for example, took us between fields of sheep and hay fields with bales of hay for winter feed, then the road dropped into a little valley, with a burn and wild-flowers, then we wound back up to the farmland (B6357). Going to and from Traquair was on a road along-side the Tweed River, full to its banks, sometimes running through forest and at others opening out to allow a field beside the water. The hillsides above us at this point were pine plantations of the Tweed Valley Forest Park (A72). Other roads were almost green roofed tunnels among overhanging trees. It was really impossible to photograph any of this, because the roads have no ’shoulder’ and we couldn’t just stop in the road. We did have to drive slowly at times; I counted 7 tractors that we followed during the day.

More exploration planned for tomorrow, the weather is said to be clearing and there are red clouds tonight.

First stop (after checking out of the B&B) was the Bannockburn memorial. It was specially built to celebrate the 700^th anniversary of the battle, which occurred in June, 1315. The flagpole set up in the 19^th century and a statue of Robert the Bruce, unveiled in 1964, are still there, off to one side and supposedly on the spot where Robert raised his standard on the day.

Robert the Bruce

Within the Visitor Centre, the informative part of the memorial was set up in four parts, in four rooms. First, two 3D presentations giving the Scots and the English point of view, as expressed by Douglas and by the English queen, each represented by a rather jerky animated figure on a flat panel screen. The second room gave 3D representations of the soldiers and horsemen at the Battle, which we watched as a group, the figures were life size and appeared on the walls of the room or apparently moving through the room. We then had ten minutes or so individually to look at the examples of armour and weapons used at the time and run through some of the personal stories that were presented by 3D animations around the sides of the room (rather better done than the first lot, but working out how to get the displays to operate took too long). Next, we were ushered into the ‘Battle Room’ where we were shown how the Battle of Bannockburn is supposed to have unfolded, by projection of troop movements onto a model of the landscape. Finally, there was an epilogue (flat screen) indicating what happened to Robert the Bruce and Edward II (again poorly animated). The complex included a shop and cafe, and a room where one could try on some armour.

I was not particularly impressed as I prefer to be able to walk through displays at my own pace, rather than being herded along in a group; I don’t like wearing 3D glasses; and the initial and final animation was not very good. The character sketches were reasonable, but it took a tutorial to be able to work the system. I thought it was overly technological. However, as has been pointed out to me, we are not the target audience. It was designed to appeal to younger generations.

Low-tech battle scene in the Cafe

We had to farewell the cousins here, as Shirley and I were continuing south while they were heading home northwards. Our next objective was Falkirk. We started with the Falkirk Wheel, an innovative solution to moving barges between the Union and the Forth and Clyde Canals, where there is a 35 foot change in altitude between them that used to require 11 locks. The wheel raises and lowers barges (and water) using counterweighted arms, and using very little energy. We were there just in time to see the wheel in operation. The whole place was packed with people; it was a warm sunny day and perfect for getting out with the kids!

Falkirk Wheel postcard

The Wheel in operation

We moved on to Callendar House where we had a quick look at the displays within the house (a history of the house, a photography display and a local history section including a bit about the nearby Antonine Wall) and settled down in the Dining Room for lunch. The Drawing Room is set up for weddings, and there is no attempt to set any part up as a representation of the house as it was when lived in, except for the old kitchens. This was a rather quieter stop, although there were families playing in the park round the house.

Callendar House

The third place we stopped was at Helix Park to see the Selkies, two huge horse’s heads near a canal. This is supposed to celebrate the role of heavy horses in industry. As yet, there is no interpretive activity, just a souvenir shop and refreshment stalls. There is a building going up, so something may appear soon.

The Selkies

After this, we drove straight though to the Borders region, bypassing Edinburgh, and getting to Melrose just before 5 pm. We settled into our room and decided some of our priorities for our 4 night stay here. We had a lovely meal at a nearby restaurant and retired for an early night.