A wonderful first day of my walk, and peaceful Dryburgh Abbey

I said goodbye to Melrose this morning and headed up past the High Street and onto Saint Cuthbert’s Way.  I was a little disappointed that there was no one nearby to take a picture of me at the start of my walk, but that was a small thing, soon forgotten as I began to climb.

 

It was another beautiful day, with some early morning mist, and I turned to take my last photo of Melrose below.

I climbed slowly but steadily towards the saddle between the hills.

 

And reached it sooner than expected – easy peasy!

I headed down the other side and was soon descending gently through a lovely shaded woodland.

I enjoyed the quiet of the walk, with not another soul in sight from the moment I left Melrose until I exited the woodland at a pretty meadow at the edge of the small village of Bowden.  I exchanged cheery calls of “good morning” with two dog walkers, and snapped a few photos of Bowden as I passed through.

 

Then, I was alone again on paths beside farmers’ fields and then through another woodland as I walked along the Bowden Burn.

 

I emerged on a paved road where a break through the hedgerows provided a look back at the Eildons from which I had come.

After the section of paved road, I soon arrived to the edge of the town of St. Boswells. So quick! Luckily, after crossing a main road and walking along just a few streets, Saint Cuthbert’s Way once more became a wooded trail which followed another burn down to the River Tweed.

There was a pedestrian bridge over the river, and I took pictures from the middle of the bridge both upstream (featuring the requisite salmon fisherman) and downstream.  I stayed for a while and looked for salmon in the water but I was not lucky enough to spot any.

Soon after crossing the bridge I arrived at the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey.  At first I was disappointed to learn that there was no audio guide as I had planned for this to be a big learning visit.  But, after a brief rest on a sunny bench where I aired out my feet and boots, and had my lunch, I was ready to just enjoy and appreciate the serenity of the ruins and the beautiful grounds.

Dryburgh Abbey was established in 1150 by Augustinian monks. It was the smallest of the four Borders abbeys, and like the others it suffered greatly over history from British attacks, particularly in 1385 by Edward II (the Scourge of the Scots), and in 1385 by Richard II.  It was again attacked, and finally abandoned in 1544.

In 1786, the Earl of Buchan purchased the abbey ruins and transformed them into a place of romance and beauty that was so well-loved by Sir Walter Scott that he chose to be buried here.  Here are some images from the beautiful ruins of Dryburgh Abbey.

 

The grounds were also beautiful, with lawns, meadows, seating areas, a mature arboretum of trees, and a path down to the Tweed where I saw an otter swim from one side of the river to the other and back again!

 

I became enamoured of the seeds of the beech tree which are spiky and rather dull on the tree, but when dry and open they are beautiful!  The outer cover opens in four parts to resemble the petals of a flower and the two seeds inside rise up like stamens and have three smooth sides that dip inwards. Beautifully geometric and symmetric and lovely to the touch!

I also enjoyed photographing the fanciful seeds of the lime tree, and the flowers and flower heads of Queen Anne’s lace that dominated the meadow grasses.

 

Here is a photo of the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel, adjacent to the Abbey grounds.  Quite posh! I had originally made a booking here, but decided to stay in St. Boswells’s instead in order to have a shorter second day of walking  (19.5 km) to Jedburgh.

So, after several peaceful hours at Dryburgh Abbey, I made my way back to the pedestrian bridge and crossed it over the Tweed to regain St. Cuthbert’s Way.  I was happy to find that the trail progressed again for some distance alongside the river, with increasingly beautiful views as I walked along in the late afternoon sun.

The trail crossed another burn, and then climbed steeply up to the town.  I emerged very near the village green, with my accommodation, the Buccleugh Inn (pronounced buck-loo I finally learned!) just across the road.

 

A lovely inn, and best of all there was a bathtub!  A wonderful opportunity to get clean horizontally!

Now, I’m in the restaurant having finished the first really nice dinner of my trip. (My breakfasts have been so huge that I’ve been keeping the bacon and toast and jam for lunches and have still not been very hungry at dinner time.  Last night my “dinner”, bought at the Melrose Co-op, cost me 62 pence! 10 pence for a banana (potassium) and 52 pence for a pint of milk (calcium for my bones, protein for my muscles, B vitamins for my brain)).  It’s a bit of a feast tonight though – a small sirloin steak on salad, with yam fries and a delicious cider called Aspalls. I’ll keep my eyes open for that one again!

Well, a longer day of walking is ahead of me tomorrow, and the forecast is calling for  rain so I had better start getting ready for bed.  I had a wonderful first day of walking on Saint Cuthbert’s Way and visit to peaceful Dryburgh Abbey.  Thank you for joining me on the journey.  Goodnight!