Northumbria and the Scottish Borders - we were literally on the border!

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From Newcastle we headed up to our base for the next 5 nights at Kirk Yetholm. Didn't actually realise till we got there that it was in Scotland, just across the border in fact by about a mile or two. Aha, that's what they mean by the Scottish Border country! Loved the area, so quiet and rural, and again, very few tourists and stuff that goes with it. We also noticed how friendly the people up North are, felt very comfortable here. The hostel was good, small and friendly, and in a tiny village right at the end of the Pennine Way. We also enjoyed being able to cook our own meals at the hostel, which was pretty quiet, and treated ourselves to dinner at the Town Yetholm pub on the last night. We used it as a base to relax and do some walking practice for the Coast to Coast the next week. Did a couple of day walks - our first was from Jedburgh to Kelso Abbey along the Border Abbeys Way, a distance of around 19 km, and from Melrose Abbey to St Boswells along St Cuthbert's way, which I think was 10 km but over the Eildon Hills (used the public bus service to get to the start of the walks). There are so many ruined abbeys in this part of the world it is hard to remember them all - Dryburgh, Jedburgh, Melrose, Kelso, Lindisfarne... and so it goes on.

Spent a couple of days touring around the countryside visiting some of the little towns and villages around us, a day trip out to Holy Island and Lindisfarne, down the coast to Bamburgh and back through Alnwick, and a trip up to Berwick on Tweed, all of which were really great places. To get to Holy Island/Lindisfarne you need to judge the tides, as you can only drive over there at low tide, or get stuck till the next low tide! We had fun watching the tide rise and the crazy 4 wheel drivers crossing at their peril! The island was where St Cuthbert spent over 20 years as prior of Lindisfarne. Bamburgh is a beautiful town watched over by its magnificent castle, and is where Grace Darling is buried, a Northumbrian lighthouse keeper's daughter who carried out a heroic rescue in a fierce storm (I wrote a story about her when I was about 12, and so it was exciting to visit her museum there!). Berwick was also a surprise, a really interesting walled town set on the Tweed, which is spanned by a couple of magnificent old bridges.

Finally, it was time to head up to Edinburgh to drop the rental car and then hop on the train down to Carlisle to meet up with the Hartleys, the Gillons and Joy, and to train down to St Bees for our big walk - the Coast to Coast!

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Photos

Carrying St Cuthbert
Lindisfarne Abbey

Crossing from Holy Island
the race to beat the tide