After living in Scotland for over a year, I decided it was high time to get out and take advantage of the beautiful countryside. I haven't hiked in ages, so I decided on a relatively modest distance with a lighter pack. I'll add my gear list at the end. I found that doing this walk in two days was quite challenging, but extremely doable if you know what to expect.

Day 1: On 29-July, I walked from my house in Edinburgh to the bus station and caught the 253 to Cockburnspath, scheduled for 0854. We were late leaving the station and I ended up arriving at the bus stop closer to 1100. The bus stops just south of the War Memorial (labeled on OS map). Just north of that is a gate to your right, and you're off.

I followed the well waymarked path around a few bends and under a bridge. It's mostly easy trail with little change of elevation for awhile.



I soon started to get great views of the coast.



Onward until the path comes out onto some tarmac, leading down to Pease Bay Leisure Park. For a Friday, it was still quite busy, so be careful on the road. Some people did not bother slowing down.




After the park entrance, there's a small footbridge going over a ford and the path sets off uphill along the road. Note that the gate to the trail is on the left side, just as the incline begins. It was pretty overgrown and narrow. Likewise with much of the trail immediately thereafter.



I continued towards Old Cambus West Mains. I was warned the path turns up towards the road here and to not get confused and think I needed to follow the coast through the thick bracken. Around this point, I saw "St. Helen's Church remains" on the OS map and decided to take a look. It was just off trail and I decided the ruins would be a good windbreak, so I stopped for lunch and coffee.




I continued on, taking in the great views through Dowlaw. Not much to say about the path except that it's easy to follow and pleasant. Now, between Dowlaw and St. Abbs, it was a bit more challenging. That could be due to me just being tired, but still, it felt like I was trudging uphill quite often.




I finally reached a field just at the base of St. Abb's Head Nature Reserve. Note that there seems to be a path continuing forward, and I suppose you could take that straight to St. Abbs, but the path proper veers to the left and goes up and around the reserve. Beautiful views as you start to climb the road up the head.



Up I went until I caught a view of the lighthouse and finally saw St. Abbs, my stop for the evening. In the future, I plan to camp, but I didn't quite have all my gear yet, so I booked a room at the Seaview B&B. Great host, comfortable clean room, and an excellent breakfast. I highly recommend.

Important note. NOTHING is open in that town after 1700. I ended up eating one of my camping meals in my room. It was a sad dinner.





Day 2: I woke up at 0630, made a coffee in the room, and went down to an excellent breakfast at 0700. I chatted with the host, packed my gear, settled my tab, and set off at around 0800. I felt okay at this point, a bit tired, but not terribly sore. I'll tell you now though, the latter half of day 2 kind of sucked. I'll get to why in a bit.

From St. Abbs, I continued on through Coldingham Bay. The rains had just passed and it was pleasantly cool and dark.



There was quite a bit of up and down until I eventually reached Eyemouth. I have to admit something here - I cheated. The path heads up along the coast around the holiday park and back down in Eyemouth proper. I looked at the map and said screw that. I was concerned about timing, as I had a train ticket back to Edinburgh from Berwick and the rail folk were striking that day, so I was anxious to get there asap and see what I needed to do to get home.



I walked by some homes and down a hill into the city center. There's a Co-Op at the point that I rejoined the path, so I stopped in for a Lucozade, which I proceeded to chug. I continued on by a memorial to the fishing disaster of 1881, around the pretty harbor, and up to some football pitches.





I then crossed some golf courses and went over a fallen signpost to the path that climbed up and along the coast again.



It was a short and scenic walk before Burnmouth became visible. The path turned sharply downhill and I followed it into the village, which smelled like you'd imagine it would at low-tide. At this point, my day turned sour. It was in the mid-20's and humid. I was tired and feeling a bit grumpy.





The path takes a sharp right soon after the colorful flats and switchbacks uphill. It's not very well maintained. At the top, I went through a small field with some sheep and hit a stretch of tarmac that paralleled the railway. At the end of that short stretch of tarmac, I hit a gate with a big "Private Property" sign and a little step-over to the right. What followed was a frustrating mess.

There might as well not have been a trail. There's a long stretch of the path that follows the railway and it's mostly overgrown with everything that has thorns on it. In some places, it was completely impassable. Is it gorse? I don't know, I'm not from here, but I'll tell you, it sucks. At some points, I could stomp them down, at others I had to crawl, and I even went off trail for a ways, only to find myself stuck between a sheer drop and more of these damnable devil shrubs.



This went for seemingly ever. It was a real low point of the trip. This eventually ended at the point called Tods Loup. I stopped and had a quick lunch before pushing onwards.

The path improved as I crossed the border into England and went through a caravan park. I knew when I saw Needles Eye that I was pretty much there.




Soon after there's another caravan park after yet another golf course. The path continues onwards into Berwick, where I'm sure there's lots of pretty things to see, but I was ready to get back to Edinburgh. As far as I was concerned, I did what I set out to do. I took a sharp right onto a public footpath that skirted the caravans and crossed the golf course into a residential area. It wasn't long before I saw the train station.

I took a well-deserved seat, rewarded myself with a sugary drink, and watched the boards announce delays and cancellations. I managed to change my ticket to an earlier train and headed back Edinburgh.





My gear:

Osprey Talon 22
Trekking poles
2.5 liters of water (between bladder and bottle)
3 dehydrated meals
Bag of assorted snacks
Dry bag with a change of clothes
Powerpack with cables and wall plug
Toiletry kit
First aid kit
4oz fuel canister
Toaks 550 and 375 cups
Soto Amicus stove
Titanium spoon
Rain jacket, pack cover
Knife, lighters
Small nylon mat
Patagonia puffer (which never got used)
Long sleeve layer (which also never got used)