People and places
People and places Ashiestiel Hill – 4 th November 2017 Within thirty minutes we had reached the high point of the walk. Ashiestiel hill sits back from the A72, on ground above the long closed Peel hospital, a WW2 army hospital, converted to civilian use after the war before final closure in 1988. At twelve hundred feet the hill provides a remarkable prospect over the Border terrain . Remarkable also, is the scarcity of farm dwellings or human habitation. A few large houses are tucked into the folds of the hill on the ground above the main road but nothing else takes the eye. The rough ground we have covered to reach this point is fit only for grazing, sheep and cattle scavenge among the heather and reeds to feed on hidden patches of grass and sedge. Most hills have some covering of conifers, either encasing or bisecting the hillside or appearing in ordered blocks of deep green on the flanks of the valleys. Fields, won back from the wildness of the place, often