Review: Walking in the Scottish Borders by Ronald Turnbull. Published by Cicerone £12.95

FIFTY years ago, Roger Purvis a friend and fellow student at Prince Henry’s and I undertook a two-week cycling holiday in the Scottish Borders. Part of this fortnight was spent visiting the various woollen mills in the Tweed Valley for the Friends Travelling Scholarship that we were joint winners of in 1969 from school.

When I started looking at this new guide to walking in the Scottish Borders the names in the overview map immediately jumped out at me – Kelso, Selkirk, Melrose, Galashiels and Broadmeadows where we stayed in the various nearby Youth Hostels during our visits – Broadmeadows being the first Youth Hostel that opened in Scotland.

The book is divided into six chapters – The Cheviots (South), The Cheviots (North), The Tweed, Yarrow and Ettrick, Moffat Hills, and Manor Hills. There is also a seventh chapter entitled Longer Walks and Expeditions. In the day walks in the first six chapters there are a total of 45 walks, between 5 and 10 in each chapter and ranging in distance from 3 miles to 14.5 miles. The longer walks in Chapter seven range from a single day walk to a 7-day expedition and from 14 miles (The John Buchan Way) to 121 miles (Gretna to Barwick Upon Tweed).

Twenty-five of the walks are in the local government’s Border region, thirteen start on the English side of the border in the Cheviots area and seven are in Dumfries and Galloway. Six of the walks are fully international crossing into both Scotland and England.

Each walk includes a full route description, a map on the scale of 1: 50,000 and is punctuated with a number of full colour photographs of views, monuments, abbeys, burns and rivers, castles, cairns and other items seen on route.

In addition to the walks themselves there is an introduction, and then sections on Land of Ballads, Geology, Wildlife, When to Walk, Getting There, Accommodation, Maps, Access and finally Safety in the Hills. A box at the beginning of each walk contains key information including a typical walking time based on a moderately fit walker. The “variants” section explains how some of the walks may be shortened or lengthened. Walks are graded for harshness into four grades of Undemanding, Pleasant, Challenging & Hard.

One particular walk (Walk 17 – St Abb’s Head) brought back particular happy memories for me as towards the end of our fortnight in this area Roger and I stayed at the Youth Hostel at Coldingham Bay for 3 or 4 days and walked this 8 mile walk through St Abb’s and round St Abb’s Head.

Because of the diversity of length and level of difficulty this is a book that can be used and enjoyed by walkers of all ages and abilities. Ronald Turnbull has nine times won Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild Awards for Excellence for his guidebooks. He writes frequently for Lakeland Walker, Trail and The Great Outdoors. This is his twelfth book for Cicerone and one I can highly recommend for anyone looking to take a walking holiday in this area of the Scottish Borders.

by John Burland