Thursday 1st June 2023
To finish describing my trek along the Southern Upland Way, I started my penultimate day at a beautiful wild camp beside the Blythe Water at the junction with the Wheel Burn on the edge of the Lammermuir Hills. The previous evening had been sunny, but now I woke to cold, overcast skies and I could feel light rain in the air, so the fabulous sunshine that I had enjoyed for much of the holiday was now gone and the weather was finally feeling more Scottish. A footpath took me over Scoured Rig, and past an area of felled conifers, down to Braidshawrig. The clouds were very low, covering the tops of the Lammermuir Hills, which form a barrier between East Lothian and the Scottish Borders of high heather moorland, but without any significant peaks, though deep-sided valleys penetrate the hills. I had never been in the area before and the Southern Upland Way merely skirts the southern edge and I was not seeing it in the best of weather. However, the heather moorland was a welcome change from the tedious, grassy farmland that I had walked through the day before, even though I couldn’t help anticipating the approaching end of the trail. A track slowly took me up onto the moor through featureless terrain that was still quite enjoyable to walk through compared with the farmland of the day before. Swathes of cotton grass decorated the landscape, along with some sheep, and as I climbed heather became more abundant.
To finish describing my trek along the Southern Upland Way, I started my penultimate day at a beautiful wild camp beside the Blythe Water at the junction with the Wheel Burn on the edge of the Lammermuir Hills. The previous evening had been sunny, but now I woke to cold, overcast skies and I could feel light rain in the air, so the fabulous sunshine that I had enjoyed for much of the holiday was now gone and the weather was finally feeling more Scottish. A footpath took me over Scoured Rig, and past an area of felled conifers, down to Braidshawrig. The clouds were very low, covering the tops of the Lammermuir Hills, which form a barrier between East Lothian and the Scottish Borders of high heather moorland, but without any significant peaks, though deep-sided valleys penetrate the hills. I had never been in the area before and the Southern Upland Way merely skirts the southern edge and I was not seeing it in the best of weather. However, the heather moorland was a welcome change from the tedious, grassy farmland that I had walked through the day before, even though I couldn’t help anticipating the approaching end of the trail. A track slowly took me up onto the moor through featureless terrain that was still quite enjoyable to walk through compared with the farmland of the day before. Swathes of cotton grass decorated the landscape, along with some sheep, and as I climbed heather became more abundant.
After climbing onto Blythe Edge a word appeared on a trail post that had been exciting me throughout the Southern Upland Way: “ultreia”, which indicates that just beyond is a hoard of specially minted coins hidden in a sculptured kist. Therefore I kept my eyes peeled for the kist and eventually I found it and the slightly rusty coins inside. I was glad to find this kist as I had missed a few recently and I had feared I would not find anymore. Ahead of me were the two cairns of Twin Law so I climbed to the top of hill and explored the two magnificently constructed structures there, complete with porches that include a metal case containing a logbook. After entering my comment in the logbook I turned into the cold wind coming off the sea and headed back down the hill where, if the weather was good, surely I would have had my first glimpse of the sea, but that was not to be. Eventually I reached Watch Water Reservoir where I had my lunch before continuing along a road for an extended plod as the excitement of crossing the Lammermuir Hills was soon over and the rest of the trail descended into tedium.
After passing through the village of Longformacus I climbed toward Black Hill Wind Farm but before reaching the top I turned north and descending into the valley of the Whiteadder Water. The views under the dull, grey skies were mainly of farmland so were not interesting to me, though the conical peak of Dirrington Great Law had grabbed my attention, but mostly I was just counting down the moments until I could finally reach the end of the trail after walking such a long way. On the northern tip of Black Hill I crossed the thousand feet mark for the last time on the trail and I realised that that was the last hill on the Southern Upland Way. A forestry track eventually brought me into Abbey St Bathans which was a delightful place, but completely deserted, so I turned up beside the Wharfe Burn and on the recommendation of the rambling man website, which had recommended the previous night’s wild camp, I stopped beside the path in delightful surroundings for my final night on the trail. My walk over the Lammermuir Hills was enjoyable and had helped me recover from the previous day’s tedium, but after lunch there had been no interest though a little variety prevented the tedium of the day before.
After a peaceful night I set off along the track and immediately climbed away from the Wharfe Burn onto boring farmland which continued over a hill, past Blackburn Mill, until eventually I descended into the valley of the Pease Burn, which contains both the A1 trunk road and the East Coast Mainline. After a death-defying dash across the A1 I discovered a mown path through the undergrowth between the road and railway and eventually crossed the line into Penmanshiel Wood, which is yet another conifer plantation on the Southern Upland Way, but thankfully the last. The last of the hoards of hidden treasure should be in this area, but I didn’t see any sign of the kist that marks the location, though the track beside the river had been recently widened which may have damaged it. The vegetation beside the Pease Burn was lovely with wild garlic dominating but the destruction from the wide forestry track ensured that this was hardly noticed. Eventually I came off the wide track to climb through the plantation for an extended walk among the conifers before finally descending and entering Pease Dean Nature Reserve.
After passing through the village of Longformacus I climbed toward Black Hill Wind Farm but before reaching the top I turned north and descending into the valley of the Whiteadder Water. The views under the dull, grey skies were mainly of farmland so were not interesting to me, though the conical peak of Dirrington Great Law had grabbed my attention, but mostly I was just counting down the moments until I could finally reach the end of the trail after walking such a long way. On the northern tip of Black Hill I crossed the thousand feet mark for the last time on the trail and I realised that that was the last hill on the Southern Upland Way. A forestry track eventually brought me into Abbey St Bathans which was a delightful place, but completely deserted, so I turned up beside the Wharfe Burn and on the recommendation of the rambling man website, which had recommended the previous night’s wild camp, I stopped beside the path in delightful surroundings for my final night on the trail. My walk over the Lammermuir Hills was enjoyable and had helped me recover from the previous day’s tedium, but after lunch there had been no interest though a little variety prevented the tedium of the day before.
After a peaceful night I set off along the track and immediately climbed away from the Wharfe Burn onto boring farmland which continued over a hill, past Blackburn Mill, until eventually I descended into the valley of the Pease Burn, which contains both the A1 trunk road and the East Coast Mainline. After a death-defying dash across the A1 I discovered a mown path through the undergrowth between the road and railway and eventually crossed the line into Penmanshiel Wood, which is yet another conifer plantation on the Southern Upland Way, but thankfully the last. The last of the hoards of hidden treasure should be in this area, but I didn’t see any sign of the kist that marks the location, though the track beside the river had been recently widened which may have damaged it. The vegetation beside the Pease Burn was lovely with wild garlic dominating but the destruction from the wide forestry track ensured that this was hardly noticed. Eventually I came off the wide track to climb through the plantation for an extended walk among the conifers before finally descending and entering Pease Dean Nature Reserve.
This was a beautiful place, gloriously overgrown, but with still no sign of the sea. I could hear it and even smell it, but the thick woodland prevented me from seeing the North Sea until eventually at the top of a flight of steps the sea emerged above the trees. The path descended into a deep woodland valley and I emerged from the reserve on the edge of a holiday park which I skirted before climbing to the top of the cliffs overlooking Pease Bay with the red rocks of the cliffs further up the coast. It was exciting to be finally at the North Sea after twelve days on the Southern Upland Way crossing from the west coast of Scotland all the way to the east coast. The end was within reach. First I made my way along the top of the craggy cliffs high above the sea and past tiny Cove Harbour which seemed like a fitting counterpoint to Portpatrick where I had started the trail. Even though the views up the coast included the large white building of Torness Nuclear Power Station and the chimneys of a cement works, the views under sunny blue skies were fantastic and spurred me on to complete the last little section of the Southern Upland Way which bizarrely now turned back west towards Portpatrick.
Eventually, after passing under both the A1 and the railway line, I reached the small village of Cockburnspath where an information board on the junction of the Edinburgh Road and road into the village announces the Southern Upland Way that according to the trail website ends at the war memorial opposite. However other sources claim the market cross in the centre of the village is the end of the trail, though there is no acknowledgement of that there. I have wanted to do this trail for a long time, it is something I have aspired to do and now I have done it. There is a lot of variety, many good bits and many bad bits, but almost all of the best bits were in the county of Dumfries and Galloway and I felt the trail started to deteriorate once I entered the Scottish Borders, which is a shame as I’m sure the county has many interesting walks. The highlights on the Southern Upland Way for me were the bluebells in Glen Trool and also in many other places, plus the many ranges of hills and the beautiful wooded valleys. I didn’t mind the large number of conifer plantations but I don’t enjoy walking through farmland and there seemed to be increasingly more of that as the trail reached its last few days. The weather was almost uniformly sunny which is astonishing and more than I could have hoped. As I waited for a bus to start my journey home I was exhausted but pleased to have finally done the Southern Upland Way.
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