Borders Abbeys Way Section 2 - Hawick to Nisbet (2016)

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Part 3 - Hawick to Jedburgh
Saturday 26th November

It was late November when I made it back onto the Borders Abbeys Way, and winter rather than autumn - there was ice at the edges of the river, and as I followed the route along it I slipped on black ice and went down so hard that my head hit the ground - fortunately I had on my good fleece hat with a doubled over brim, and only ended up a bit generally shaken.

Icy river

Eventually the path left the houses and the old mill buildings behind - out here the autumn colours were making a valiant effort, with beech leaves covering the path.

Beech carpet

The river gets narrower and rockier before Hornshole bridge, with its monument to a skirmish which took place the year after Flodden, but it broadens out again beyond.

Walking by the river

The route joined the road for a while, with views up to the little Minto Hills on the same side of the river, and then the autumn colours came back on an odd raised bank, lined with slender trees.

Colourful avenue

This wandered on without the trees, but with odd warnings about dangerous slug pellets and high pressure pipes, across the middle of a ploughed field, where mist was lying mixed up with the autumn colours.

Misty fields

Soon after that the path reaches first the piers of an old suspension bridge, then the stone bridge which leads over the river to Denholm.

Denholm bridge

Denholm is an attractive spot, built around a green with a monument to a local scholar, and with some lovely buildings, including one which admonishes you to 'tak tent in time'. I knew I didn't have much, so headed on out of the village towards Rubers Law, which was turning very elusive - at first I had thought I would make a detour to it on a stretch from Hawick to Jedburgh, than that I would go from Ashkirk to Denholm and finish by climbing it, but neither of these things had happened, and now I was back to the first plan, but with no time to turn aside.

Rubers Law

The route skirting the bottom of the hill was not the same on the ground as on my map, which was quite confusing - keeping to the south of Spital Tower and eventually joining the road which comes up from Hallrule just above the junction at the Bedrule sawmill, instead of meeting the road to the north and coming to the junction from the other side.

Bedrule itself was partly tucked into the shadow of the river valley, but the church was in sunshine on the hillside beyond.

Bedrule

It was already beginning to drift from winter afternoon to evening, a golden slanting light across the low hills.

Evening landscape

I was in shadow now, but where the path climbed the western slopes of Black Law it was still in sunlight, and I chased it up without ever quite catching up with it.

Climbing Black Law

As I came down the far side I was moving from the lands haunted by Eildon to the lands haunted by the Cheviot, standing up snow-covered beyond the hills around the College valley.

Snow on the Cheviot

The way led down the edge of a strip of trees and then turned along a long fenceline - the light was holding out well enough, but in the sunshine of the middle of the day I had forgotten how icy it had been in the beginning, and when the path turned steeply downhill towards Hundalee it started to be very slippery with frozen mud, so I followed the road down into the town instead.

Part 4a - Jedburgh to Nisbet
Saturday 3rd December

The next day on the route, then, a week later, started by following that same road back uphill, giving a similar view of the Cheviot, but without most of its snow - it was a different and much milder kind of day, although it was now December.

The Cheviot again

I was on a mission to finish the path by the end of the year, which meant getting out onto it more or less every weekend - both for pride's sake, and because I thought my Historic Scotland membership ran out at the end of the year, and having it for visiting the abbeys was part of the reason behind the plan.

The now unfrozen track led down almost to the road at Hundalee and then the route turned along another track to come into the town by the castle, now actually a Victorian prison building.

Jedburgh castle

Jedburgh was where I sat down and cried on the way into the town on St Cuthbert's Way - my first long distance walk - having really, I think, worn myself out crossing from Wooler to Yetholm the day before. I stayed somewhere up the castle hill on that occasion, but couldn't remember exactly where.

Then I had only walked past the abbey, so this was my first visit, and it is still my favourite of the border abbeys - a stunning place. The great church survives more or less complete although roofless, two long rows of facing arches, and the tower over the crossing.

Jedburgh Abbey

At one end it was possible to climb up a little stair inside the wall and look along the arches from higher up, which was a very interesting view - this is also the end with the beautiful rose window.

Rose window

There's much less to be seen of the other abbey buildings, no more than foundations and outlines, but the tiny museum has a wonderful medieval carving with mice and birds looking alive in the stone.

Medieval birds

From the abbey the path led along the Jed Water as it curved round, passing an old stone bridge and a house with piper carved on its gable, and crossing at a second bridge.

Old bridge

Further along the river, near the edge of the town, the far bank becomes an odd red cliff full of layers - there's a kind of tiny park here, and I sat on a bench to eat my lunch.

Small cliffs

I'd done it again, however - between starting too late and spending too long in the abbey it was already about 2, and there was no way I was going to get through to Kelso in December daylight. Most of the path was a long way from any bus route, too, and so I decided that my end point would be the bridge at Nisbet, from where I could head back along the road and catch the bus as it turned in to Ancrum.

As you head out from Jedburgh, the most striking thing in the landscape is the Waterloo monument on Peniel Heugh.

Penniel Heugh

I had followed this little stretch of the BAW from St Cuthbert's Way into Jedburgh, and before long I briefly joined up with the route of St Cuthbert's Way, and with the Roman Dere Street, before they parted again at Jedfoot Bridge to follow the Teviot in different directions.

Meeting St Cuthbert's Way

I was meeting the Teviot again for the first time since I had left it at Denholm - a raised field edge led right down to briefly join the river bank.

River Teviot again

From there another slightly raised field bank led along to the bridge - not the classic stone arches this time, but a metal one looking more like a railway bridge.

Nisbet Bridge

From the bridge I turned back for the walk along the fairly empty road to the Ancrum road end - further along it passed to the north of Monteviot House and then crossed St Cuthberts Way before passing Harestanes - the most pleasant surprise of St Cuthbert's Way, but no cafe visit today, just the bus home.