The Southern Upland Way is a 210 mile coast to coast walking trail across the southern hills of Scotland. It goes from Cockburnspath in the east to Portpatrick in the west. I thought that it might be an interesting journey. Not walking it of course - I'm a man of advancing years with a dodgy knee. But by bike following the route as closely as possible. The trail is generally remote from roads but I plotted a route in the same general direction.
The trail crosses the regions of the Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway. My journey is similar to that I did a couple of years ago (see here) but I was sure that could find plenty of new things to present to you.
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| The route |
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| Cockburnspath |
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| The market cross dates from 1507 |
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| The path heads west to the coast at Cove |
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| Heading inland I pass a small clump of tress that the map describes as "The Maiden's Paps (Breasts)"…I'm not seeing it. |
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| I'm not kidding! |
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The
church at Abbey St Bathans. It dates from the late 18th century and
contains stone from the old nunnery that gave the village its name.
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| Ramblers on the trail |
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| A bench with flowers for the weary traveller |
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| In the town the trail crosses this rather strange footbridge. A asymmetric cable stayed timber Warren truss? Build by the Gurkhas of the British Army. |
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| Ford across the Whiteadder Water |
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| Harvesting an abundant Scottish resource - wind. The farmer is spreading muck on his fields. You can't appreciate the smells of the countryside as I did! |
When I was youger and fitter and not quite so rotund I walked the West Highland Way a couple of times. A lot of the bridges along the route were built by the army. I suppose it keeps them out of trouble :)
ReplyDeleteI usually see the walkers on the West Highland Way heading north out of Tyndrum. In high summer it's like Sauchiehall Street (for non-Glaswegians, a busy thoroughfare)
DeleteThe Southern Upland Way is much quieter, I think, but goes through some nice countryside.