Borders Abbey Way: Melrose to Ashkirk

After a very long first day (read about it here), we started day 2 of the Borders Abbey Way: Melrose to Ashkirk with an extended and exceptionally good “full Scottish” breakfast when I had a good catch up with the B&B owner, Lorna. First stop was for a photo where we  popped in for a quick look at the lovely Priorwood Orchard which was full of apple blossom. We then headed back towards the River Tweed to follow it a couple more miles upstream through lovely woodland. At one turn an oncoming walker said “oh, hello Sam” – we were having a conversation whilst I was frantically going through the filing cabinet in my mind to work out who it was! Eventually he put me out of my misery – it was someone who worked with Peter at the Borders General hospital in the 1990s who had been following yesterday’s section of the trip via Facebook.

After this rather amusing encounter, we left the Tweed and headed up to skirt Abbotsford Estate – the house and gardens where Sir Walter Scott lived. The visitor centre was a good opportunity for a loo stop (we had learned yesterday to take advantage of them) and I amused myself at witch's corner, after all Teddy had posed as a muse yesterday, then on up the hill towards Selkirk. Most of this section was on side roads, with little traffic which eventually skirted Cauldshiels Loch.

I was quite tempted to have a dip as it is a very popular wild swimming destination – but as I have subsequently found out the name cauld is very appropriate! This was the high point for this section of the route and we started dropping down a pleasant farm track. With a shorter day ahead we had plenty of time to chat to people en-route and had a very lengthy chat with a couple who were doing the BAW in the other direction and splitting it up over a number of weeks.

The route took us across a field of lambs and, after yesterday’s experience, we made full use of the bench for a breather, particularly as the sun had come out. Then we dropped down into Selkirk Common, an area that looks very interesting for wildlife, and into the town. We were over half way for the day and it was lunchtime, but, still full from our breakfast we just had a coffee in Three Hills Coffee Co before heading off on the next 5 miles to Ashkirk. This was one of the few times when we path finding was a bit difficult as the waymarkers out of Selkirk were not so good. Eventually we asked a passerby who directed us up through a gateway into The Haining Estate, where we soon picked up the familiar signposts.

Upland Habitat

Most of the walk so far had been very much “lowland” habitat – rivers, deciduous woodland and fields. For the first time it began to feel more “upland” – a mixture of forestry plantations, rough grazing and more difficult walking, including our first encounter with mud. Still, nothing our road running shoes couldn’t cope with. It remained a bit chilly, but the sun came out and all was right with the world. It didn’t seem long at all until we took the short detour off the Borders Abbey Way, down to Ashkirk where we caught the bus back to Selkirk for the night. Our accommodation was The County, now no longer a pub but a hotel offering bed and breakfast, evening meal was at the very nice (and busy) No 1 Bistro.

Many years ago, I performed in Noel Cowards’s Bittersweet and one of the songs was “Tokay” a drinking song in celebration of a Hungarian fortified wine. At the time we did manage to buy some bottles from a wine merchant, but I have never seen it on the menu – until we arrived at No. 1 in Selkirk. Obviously, I had to have a glass and very nice it was too!

If you would like to find out more about this section of the walk, I recommend you buy the guide to the Borders Abbey Way - click on the image below to buy on line.