Gameshope to Carrifran Woodland Walk

When a friend asked me if I would like her extra ticket for a guided walk as part of Golden Eagle Festival at Moffat, naturally I jumped at the chance. The walk was to be led by a ranger from the Borders Forest Trust taking us through the “heart of eagle country from Gameshope to Carrifran” and was promoted as a medium difficulty walk.

It was an early start as it takes nearly 2 hours to travel right across the Scottish Borders and the mist on our journey up the Yarrow Valley did not look very promising. However almost as soon as we crossed the watershed before dropping down into Moffat the sun came out and it was a glorious day.

This was a free walk and had been fully booked, although only ten of the 14 who booked on turned up, which was a shame, but, having led guided walks myself, 10 is quite sufficient. We were taken on a breath-taking minibus drive out of Moffat and up around Tweedsmuir and along the road by Talla Reservoir before being dropped off at Gameshope Burn where we were met by the site officer, Andy.

Before setting off up the track we had a brief introduction to the site which came into the ownership of Borders Forest Trust in 2013 and is now being restored to its natural state of native woodland in the valley bottoms and montane scrub and heathland higher up. Read more about the project here.

Restoration Project

I was very excited to see the very natural planting of trees – birches, willows, rowans and oaks along the valley. Andy pointed out some of the relic natural trees that has avoided grazing, explained the problems of sitka spruce in the environment and enthusiastically showed us some of the trees that are naturally regenerating.

The route basically followed Games Hope Burn right up the valley – at first this was easy walking along a well-defined track, but once we got beyond the bothy and another shelter for volunteers, the path deteriorated and eventually totally disappeared.

The land is no longer used for sheep grazing, which is why the trees are thriving and regenerating. This does, however, mean that there are no sheep tracks to follow – occasionally we picked up a badger “trod” complete with their bilberry-coloured poop – but mostly we were making our own way across bog, tussocks and heathland, making for very slow walking.

The restoration project is not just about tree-planting. Andy showed us where the peat bog was being restored and explained the importance of natural peatlands, which reduce flood risks, store carbon dioxide and are more biodiverse than the Amazon rainforest. Unfortunately for headline-makers restored peat does not have a huge visual impact as it just blends into the scenery. What it has meant though is that the peat is not being washed away, so the burn is much more clear than it has been – I was very tempted to take a dip in one of the many clear pools  - one for another day.

We had a couple of refreshment breaks, the second at the splendidly named Rotten Bottom – which is actually pretty well the watershed between Gameshope and the Carrifran Valley. Unfortunately by this time we were under marching orders! The mixture of the minibuses being 30 minutes late at the start, warm weather and a lack of path meant that we were very tight on time to catch the mini-bus at the end.

Carrifran Wildwood

It really was a splendid view, (which brought to mind Alan J Lerner's lyric "On a clear day you can see forever") down into Carrifran Wildwood. This has been under management of the Borders Forest Trust since 2000 with over 750,000 trees having now been planted in the valley. The aim is to recreate a valley of diverse woodland which would have existed before human activities dominated the landscape. Read more about the Carrifran Wildwood here.

It was a steep descent down into the wildwood, once again with no path, but with amazing views of the waterfall coming off White Coomb. We eventually reached a path alongside the Carrifran Burn which gave us an easy walk in to the wildwood carpark and the awaiting minibus.

Conclusion

It is fair to say this was a really tough walk and no-one is entirely sure who graded it as “moderate” – as you can see from my summary, I have described it as hard, particularly with the time pressure. I think all of us fell over at some point, either slipping at one of the many burn crossings (Andy was very good at helping us across) or just tripping over tussocks and several of the participants said that they would have thought twice if they would have known how tough the route was. I’m not sure how far the route was – predictably I forgot to start my Strava – I would estimate about 8 miles from the varying readings of other people's devices - of which at least half didn’t have any path. However, the day was absolutely glorious and you really got a feel of how beautiful these hills are – more Scottish Highlands than Borders – and I certainly want to go up and explore the area more. Sadly, we didn’t see any golden eagles, despite assurances that they are around and doing very well. You can read more about the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project here. I think a trip back in spring will be excellent as I am sure that the woodland and managed bogs will be amazing for breeding birds.

Many thanks to Kirsty for thinking of me when she got that extra ticket!