Day 65: St Boswell to Galashiels (13 miles)

I left at 9:40 with breakfast at 8. I had chatted with a German mother and daughter walking St Cuthberts. The mother had walked the Pennine Way. The daughter was a flight attendant with only a week’s holiday so they were walking the way in 6 days. They took the link for my fundraising.

Immediately on leaving the village the path descended into woodland with carpets of wild garlic along a deep ravine cut into the red sandstone. This led to the River Tweed, a stunning way to start the walk.

As for yesterday, the nature of the walk changed depending on where I was on the meander - outside of, and I was climbing up and down the river cliffs, inside and I was walking in the river meadows. Along with the river was the return of the back headed gulls and the sentinel figures of herons poised waiting for a fish to spear.

Even running low, the power of the river was impressive and the flood flotsam hanging on the tree branches was testament to its strength in flood. The flowers along here were wonderful. Alongside the wild garlic, red campion, common vetch, grew comfrey, purslane, and water avens. Finally it looked as though spring has overtaken me. The 3 cornered leeks and celandine had withered and yellowed taken over by the wild garlic and dog mercury.

Having left the river behind a footbridge took me over a small tributary where the pool below me was full of frogspawn and tadpoles stirred the water. I met a couple of English ladies one whose mother died in 2021 after 4 awful years of Alzheimer’s and they took a photo of my link.

In confirmation of the arrival of early summer I saw the first roses that I’d seen on the walk, as well as lilac, Laburnum, ceanothus and flowering currant in bloom in the gardens of Bowden. Then on the village common, 4 people went by, the women with an old dog in a pushchair and 2 men who stopped and enquired where I was going - later they made a welcome donation. This turned out to be a very sociable walk - immediately I met a lady with a gorgeous 8 month golden retriever, and a number of other dog walkers.

A gradual climb through the forest led me to the heather, gorse, may and rowan-clad col of the Eildon Hills. There was an option to climb one of the hills … I gave that a miss!!!

 I sat and admired the view while having lunch at 13:00, setting off again at 13:35. Descending through the blend of yellow gorse and white may was quite stunning along with the chorus of willow warblers and chiffchaffs.

St Cuthberts Way finishes at Melrose, a pretty town with an abbey clad apparently for next 20 years or so in scaffolding for restoration. I continued along the Borders Abbey Trail, picking up the Southern Upland Way which I will follow for the next several days at the impressive chainage bridge built in 1826 with some amusing bylaws still in place.

At 14:45 I stopped for a snack by the river. I’d thought of a coffee at Melrose, but continued so I could stop and enjoy the Tweed for a while. Watching the black heads gulls I noticed that the colour of their underwings varied - one in particular had completely black underwings which contrasted with others with light grey. I wondered if this was an indication of age - I’d have to check. Looking at it closer it was quite a bit smaller than the others and every so often got picked on by the others. Was there a lesser black headed gull I wondered...it also had a black beak and more intense black head than the others whose beaks had a hint of red. I was delighted later that evening to discover that this matched the description of a “little gull”. This was the first time I had identified one and I was thrilled.

The path then followed an old railway and then the actual railway before diverting again along the river before heading up around the eastern side of Gala Hill. There was a great view back to the Eildon Hills over the historic house of Abbotsford even though it had clouded over.

A comfortably inclined descent then took me down into Galashiels and to my accommodation for the night where I arrived at 16:45. Tomorrow would be a long day so I was glad that the last couple of days I’d covered a reasonable distance in a shorter time than I would allow tomorrow. However I aimed to be up and out early in the morning.