Dere Street Roman Road.

[quagga64]

As the weather for most of Scotland wasnt to good with rain forecast for most places the SouthEast seemed to be the most promising so I set off to walk part of Dere Street which is the old Roman road which ran from York to Edinburgh but combined it with a day of sightseeing as well. First stop on the road South was Soutra Aisle on the A68 which is all that remains of the most important Medieval Hospital in Scotland then stopped briefly at Scotts View near Melrose en route to The giant Wallace Statue which is the largest and oldest Wallace Statue in Scotland built in 1814 it is 201 years old, had a walk down through the woods to the bottom of the hillside on which it stands then drove down to Dryburgh Abbey where I was going to go in and see Sir Walter Scotts grave and that of Field Marshall Earl Douglas Haig, but it was pay to get in and I didnt really have the time, paid a quick visit to a statue called The Temple of The Muses before heading off Southwards again past Jedburgh and along a wee remote road to an area called Pennymuir where my walk began, There are Roman Camps at Pennymuir but nothing much remains though I did have a walk around what lumps and bumps I could see then I walked up the farm track which is Dere Street, walked it for about 4 miles to a spot called Whitton Edge where it meets a minor road and then back again, took in an interesting wee hill called Cunzierton Hill which has a very well preserved iron Age Hillfort atop it and also explored three separate stone circles which sit alongside the Roman Road but predate it by over a thousand years. All in the walk took 5 and a quarter hours, starting at 11 o'clock and returning to the car at 4:15 I'd say it was about 8 miles in total. from here I decided to continue on down the A68 to where it crosses the border into England at Carter Bar inspired by David R. Ross in his book Desire Lines, he describes it as the best border crossing between Scotland and England because of the fine views due to its high elevation, it was myfirst visit here and I have to agree with him. From here I had a wee forray down into England and drove down to the Kielder Forest where I done a short circular walk taking in a lovely wee waterfall called Hindhope Linn. Then it was back Northwards stopping at the old Leaderfoot Viaduct and Drygrange Road bridge over the Tweed near Melrose and from here I had a walk along the disused road to visit the site of Trimonteum Roman Camp where there is a large memorial stone marking the site, left Leaderfoot about 8p.m.