Old ways and byways

'Duchess walk' - Bowhill:- Selkirk

July 15th

At one time ownership of land in Scotland was distributed based on loyalty to King or Queen. From such beginnings the great sporting estates of Scotland were born. Bowhill on the  banks of the  river Yarrow, in the Scottish Borders, is one such example Gifted to the Scott clan in 1322 by Robert the Bruce for services rendered it has,  despite some upheavals over the years,  remained largely intact as a  country estate. The house and gardens are now in the ownership of the Buccleugh family, ancestors of the Scotts. On a damp sultry Saturday we park up on the edge of the estate and take the so called ‘Duchess track’ that provides a circular route of seven miles, through and around this settled realm. Heading away from the main house we quickly find ourselves alongside the tower house of Newark castle. In good condition despite it’s nearly 700 years of existence. One of many Border keeps built to protect at a time of lawlessness and brigandry. Visited at one point by Walter Scott and the Wordsworths it was also the scene of a massacre after the battle of Philihaugh, the ghosts of the women and children murdered on that day are said to appear every September 13^th! We walk on, sticking to the single track road through this verdant, high summer setting of lush pastures and rising views.  Shortly, the long slow pull up to the tops of Fastheugh and Newark begins. After a few kilometres we  break free from a long gallery of spruce and pine, speckled throughout by stands of  purple foxglove that appear everywhere  on these lower slopes. Once we reach the open country great swathes of heather coming to flower, wrap the hills contours. The American writer, Washington Irvine, described heather as ‘that closely woven robe of Scottish landscape, which covers the nakedness of its hills and mountains’*. This description arising from a walk in the Border countryside when visiting Walter Scott in 1816. We pull up into low cloud that sweeps tightly around us as a strengthening wind accompanies us all the way to the top. Now feeling more autumn than summer we crest the main hill before sheltering for lunch in the lea of a stone grouse butt. The view before us shows a shifting sky as shards of light break through the  gloom of the morning’s mist. A long gentle path sees us drop slowly from the higher ground to the surrounds of the main house.  Along the way a stone dyke seems to act as a play area for an exultation of skylarks who occupy the fallow land that drops below the wall. They appear suddenly on the top stones before quickly wielding skyward in that strange aerial swirl that typifies their flight. They are everywhere but disappear as we leave this fold in the land and return to the wooded lower sections of the walk. Off to our right a patchwork of deciduous and evergreen trees are clumped among tilled fields and fertile pastures. Flocks of sheep and herds of cattle sit within the landscape, a peaceful scene of rural ease. On the final leg we stop to observe a tractor plough a steep sided field opposite the main house, labouring hard on the upward slope as the blade cuts and turn the resisting earth. The care this land receives and the beauty it retains gives a positive testimony to decisions made long ago despite the clear inequity involved.

*Skinner Sawyers J. ed (2001)The Road North:  300 years of Classic Scottish Travel Writing: Edinburgh: The Inn Pinn.