Broughton Heights

[nigheandonn]

Some hills turn out to be oddly elusive - if you fail once, they go on avoiding you. The first time I set out to walk the John Buchan Way, through the middle of the Broughton hills, I missed a signpost, or a signpost was missing, and I ended up in the Manor valley instead; the second time I found the path but ran out of energy to climb Penvalla from it; and this time I set out to climb three hills and managed one.

When I thought I would do Penvalla separately I'd planned to start the other two from Blyth Bridge, but when I looked at all three it made more sense to start from Broughton and loop right round the valley of Stobo Hope. But somehow I muddled the two plans, because it was the Blyth Bridge bus I got on at West Linton, slightly to the confusion of the driver. It wouldn't have mattered very much, except that I had been relying on the shop or tearoom at Broughton to buy some lunch - I didn't even have a bottle of water in my bag, because I'd left in a hurry to make a mad dash for the bus.

I could have walked down to Broughton by the road and started from there, but it was a long way, and I only knew the time of the last bus from Broughton or Stobo, not from Blyth Bridge. So with a hill in the way it made more sense to go over it, and I could always turn back up Trahenna afterwards if I wanted to.

Blyth Bridge wasn't very much - a cluster of houses and a playpark - but it had a nice old building which had obviously been a mill.

Old mill

I walked up to the junction and up to the minor road to Kirkurd (which does have the little church building, although the active church is now at Romanno Bridge), where I followed a farm road until it became a track across a field - very dry in the dry weather.

Kirkurd farm track

I was soon beyond the fields and onto forestry tracks, although there weren't nearly as many trees about as the map suggested - everything above the track was still forest, but everything below had been cleared, and long enough ago that the grass and foxgloves were growing in. Until the track ran out it was an easy climb although very hot - more trees might have meant more shade - and for once the junctions marked on the map were the same as the junctions on the ground.

Forestry track

Near the top the track just stopped, and the way out was between groups of trees in a tiny stream valley. It wasn't really far, and it looked fairly easy, but it turned out not to be easy at all, all blaeberry bushes and deep rough grass and scattered thistles, which are a problem in shorts - although thistles are fairly polite and don't usually scratch you unless you attack them first, unlike nettles. The ground on the other side of the burn looked like it might be easier, but the little valley was so steep that there was no easy way across, and I just had to fight my way on.

Steep way out

Further up I was fighting a bit of a cleg battle too, but although there were more than usual they were still coming singly, which isn't so bad - the one upside to clegs is that you can feel them landing or starting to bite and hit them with the map (or equivalent), whereas midges come in clouds and always seem to have done their mischief before I start to know about it.

The last little slope was quite steep, and I was glad to finally reach the flatter top, although it was still deep grass here - I had to make it over to the fence before I found the first trace of path.

Along the ridge

But now I was up it was easier walking again, more or less on the level, although the path was only faint wheel tracks. I was up above the valley I'd walked through on the John Buchan Way, and could look down to Stobo Hopehead with its little cluster of trees.

Stobo Hope

The summit is marked by a trig point on the far side of a corner in the fence - I didn't bother climbing over, because I could touch it perfectly well. There's supposed to be an old cairn, but the grass seems to have eaten it, although there is a slightly higher mount on the near side of the fence.

On one side Tinto stood out alone, but on the other there were hills behind hills.

Broughton Heights summit

It was quite a drop and climb again to the next little top of Green Law, and then down and on and more steeply down again to the little pass above the good track down Broughton Hope. It was almost tempting to just keep going over Trahenna, but although I didn't feel particularly thirsty I knew I must be dehydrated - and it was nearly 2 and at some point I would suddenly be starving. So I joined the John Buchan Way and headed down towards Broughton Place, keeping an eye out for the path which is supposed to run up one of the little arms of Trahenna (which it throws out in all directions - it's at least an octopus), in case I did decide to head back up.

Broughton Hope

I had a nice lunch in the tearoom at the Biggar junction, sitting at a little table outside in the shade - and then on a cooler day I might well have been tempted by the hills again, but it had got into the hottest part of the afternoon and it felt more sensible to stay where there was shade, and I had plenty of time for prowling round the village before the earlier bus.

I've wanted to see Broughton for a while, for its Buchan connections, but didn't have time to walk down through the village at the end of the John Buchan Way. It's still the village in three parts described in one of O. Douglas's books (where it turns up half a dozen times under different names) - the main part of the village, with the Biggar junction and the hall and tearoom and recently closed shop, and rows of houses on both sides of the street, mostly with roses round their doors, and then a second part which no longer has a station but still has the school, and then the third part, past the Kilbucho junction, with two churches, one now an art gallery, and the 'villa-ish looking houses'.

War memorial and school

Houses by the church

Then home via Peebles, where I didn't really know what to do with myself, because I'd expected to be there at dinner time - the tea and cake places were shutting, and anyway it was too hot for tea, and I didn't really fancy ice cream, and eventually I went to Costa and drank iced tea, and then sat down by the river for a while, which is a lovely place.

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[rockhopper]

Was down this way last December after a very early drop off at Edinburgh airport and was looking for some nearby-ish hills. Some nice walks down here - good day for it too - cheers