LEJOG
Distance walked – 30.7km (19.2miles)
Total Distance – 1262.8km (789.2miles)
We’re on the borderline
Caught between
The tides of pain and rapture
Tame Impala – Borderline
Our penultimate day on the Pennine Way was one of the very best as we commenced a two-day crossing of The Cheviot Hills that straddle the English/Scottish border. It was wild and isolated countryside and seemed a worthy finale to our journey along the Pennine Way.
There is no accommodation on this final section, so some people walk all the way to the Northern terminus at Kirk Yetholm in one day, but at 43kms this seemed a bit too much for us. Others leave the path and descend out of the hills to get picked up and transported to accommodation, and then driven back in the morning. We have tried not to do that on our LEJOG, so we opted for the third option of wild camping out on the hills, and we are so glad that we did.
Initial Ascent up Byrness Hill
The Forest View Inn where we stayed last night was absolutely brilliant, run by a lovely friendly couple with great food on offer. We got our first taste of the Scottish midges however, (even though we were just in England), and I must say that we are not looking forward to future encounters.
It was a stiff lung-bursting climb to start the morning as we ascended Byrness Hill, initially through conifer plantations and then over grassy slopes. We were glad to reach the top, situated on one edge of a giant U-shaped valley. From here the path followed a moorland crest over a series of peaks.
The Cheviots
The Cheviots, in geographical terms, have low prominence, so even though many of the peaks are above 500m, and our highpoint today will be 743m, none of them stand out as a dramatic solitary mountain. They are instead a large upland area with undulating peaks that provides grand scenery in a collaborative manner.
LEJOG dog
We passed three men with a dog and stopped to chat. It turned out that they are also walking LEJOG, although they have been doing it in stages over several years. They were heading to Jedburgh today on the last day of their current leg until next year. (Many LEJOGgers depart from the Pennine Way during this section and drop down off the hills into Jedburgh to save some time and distance. We had wanted to finish the whole PW so we will arrive in Jedburgh in two days time instead.) We wished them well on their LEJOG as we continued on ours.
Into Scotland!
We passed a cairn on Ravens Knowe where we stopped briefly to chat to a girl who was having breakfast. She is walking the Pennine Way and was planning to go all the way to Kirk Yetholm today. She seemed pretty relaxed even though it was at least a further 35 kms. (We are quite glad that we didn’t plan to go all the way today). We wished her well and pressed on, descending to arrive at the Scottish border crossing.
This was a massive mental landmark for us, even if the physical landmark was a bit of a letdown – a rickety old fence with a poor gate (2/5 on the gate scale), but we can now say that we have walked the entire length of England (and a bit of Wales)!
Our celebration was short lived as the Pennine Way crossed back into England after about 500metres. For the rest of the day the Pennine Way followed the border but remained firmly on the English side. Our definitive crossing won’t be until tomorrow, but from then on, we will be in Scotland all the way to John o’Groats.
Back in England (Looking out at Scotland)
We passed a Roman encampment archaeological site at Chew Green (only some earthen mounds are visible) before briefly following Dere Street, the remains of a Roman road. When the road crossed the border, we turned to follow the English side of the border fence. After Hadrian’s Wall yesterday, the border fence is a bit Aldi, being a four-wire fence between simple wooden posts.
Yearning Saddle
We soon arrived at the Yearning Saddle mountain shelter. The sun had just come out and was illuminating the mountains with rays of brilliant light. We found a sunny, sheltered spot behind the hut, and had our lunch of cheese tortillas and chocolate-chip biscuits.
On the Flagstone Path
After lunch we continued to follow the border fence as we walked from high point to high point. They all had wonderful names: Lamb Hill, Beefstand Hill, Mozie Law, Foul Step. The view from each was sensational with no visible signs of civilization as far as the eye could see. There were long sections of flagstones which made for easy walking.
Cheviot Goats
Just past Foul Step we managed to surprise some Cheviot goats, three adults with two kids. They bounced off down the hill at great pace. These goats are some of the last surviving herds of feral goats in the UK and have roamed wild here from as far back as the Iron Age and possibly the Neolithic.
Windy Gyle
At Windy Gyle (619m) there was a giant bronze age burial chamber with a trig point on top of it. The views from here of the complex intersecting valleys below were spectacular.
Auchope Cairn and view
We now had to tackle a long flagstone section of several kilometres, passing King’s Seat to arrive at the highest point of the day, a sadly unnamed saddle at 743 metres (strange after all the fantastic names of the day). We ignored the spur track to The Cheviot (815m) as it was too late in the day for unnecessary peak-bagging and continued down to the elegant cairn at Auchope. From here we could easily see back to Windy Gyle. The distances didn’t look far, but by now it was 17:30 and it had taken us several hours to traverse around the mountains from that point.
Descent to the Mountain Hut
It was an incredibly steep descent from Auchope cairn. To our right Hen Hole, an enormous, seemingly bottomless chasm appeared, cut like a gash in the side of the mountain. We clung to the path that ran parallel to the border fence, avoiding the vertiginous edge of Hen Hole, and descended to the safety of the mountain shelter hut at Auchope Rigg (AKA Hen Hole Bothy).
Hen Hole Bothy
After setting the tent up, we sat in the late afternoon sun outside the hut to eat our dinner, taking in the panoramic views. It was a wonderful spot to camp and we seemed to have it all to ourselves. It was a fantastic end to a great day’s walking.
Tomorrow we reach the end of the Pennine Way, but that end will merely mark the beginning of our long journey across Scotland . . . . . . . . .
