Rich rewards on a cross-border raid Put a foot in to England and

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Feb 27, 2005 | by CAMERON McNEISH

I'M sure you'll forgive me for this brief foray into England- shire although you can, if you feel strongly about such things, walk at least half the way on the Scottish side of the border.

It's a route that throws up an interesting comparison in legal access, but we'll come to that later.

We had driven through Northumberland to Carter Bar, the 1,371ft- high border point between Scotland and England, the historic barrier between Celt and Saxon. The writer HV Morton, in his fine book In Search Of Scotland, suggested for a Scot, the view north from Carter Bar is "as definite and unmistakable as the white cliffs of Dover to an Englishman".

We didn't get much of a chance to appreciate that view.

From the warm comfort of the car we were blasted by the Arctic chill of a northern wind as we squeezed into our boots and windproofs and searched for gloves and warm hats. It was a bitter, bone-chilling wind but we knew that within a few moments we would get a measure of protection from it as we climbed the short but steep slopes of Catcleugh Shin on the south side of the Wauchope Forest.

Warmed up and legs stretched, we were better prepared for the wind when we broke free of the trees and tramped over the frozen turf of Carter Fell where the full splendour of the view burst upon us. To the south the sinuous twists of Redesdale dropped down to the Catcleugh Reservoir, deep in its conifer-covered cradle.

Eastwards, straddling the border, lay the broad slopes of Redesdale - famous for its 16th century skirmish between border families - and way beyond it, across the crumpled borderlands, lay the massive bulk of the Cheviot.

Grand as these views were, it was the view north that was most heart-warming, even though the view itself looked as cold as ice. Yellowed moors led the eye to the Eildon hills, early promises of what is to come as you travel deeper into Scotland.

Beyond, from the Lammermuirs to the Moorfoots to the Tweedale, Teviotdale and Ettrick hills, everything was shrouded in white, gleaming brightly in the winter sun.

HVMorton's words came to mind as werested briefly by the cairn that marks the summit of Carter Fell: "How can I describe the strange knowingness of the Border? Its uncanny watchfulness. Its queer trick of seeming still to listen and wait.

I feel that invisible things are watching me. Out of the fern silently might ride the Queen of Elfland, just as she came to Thomas of Ercildoune in this very country with "fifty silver bells and nine" hanging from her horse's mane."

It was far too cold today for any elfin queens so, anxious to keep warm, we continued over the broad whaleback of Carter Fell, following the Border fence and well aware that on one side ofthe fence hillwalkers can wander freely, and legally, while on the English side we might have been trespassing. Having said that, on a walk like this the legal aspects of access are almost meaningless.

Trespassing or not, we were aware that the rough and frozen topography below our boots was once scraped and dug and quarried for coal, surely some of the most exposed and wild open-cast mines in the land? Little is left to remember the hardships and labours of those miners of old - the open-cast areas have been scoured and raked by decades of wind and frosts and below, in the headwaters of the Bateinghope Burn, old ruins whispered their industrial heritage from a wild and bleak hillside.

We stopped awhile among the old stones and drank from the burn, luxuriating in the windless shelter and gentle sun and remembered the border families whose sons may well have worked in these remote mines - the Scotts, Armstrongs, Elliotts, Douglases' descendants perhaps of those who plundered and skirmished on either side of this ancient border.

Fromtheoldmineanold track led us back along a natural shelf on the hillside high above Redesdale.

Away below, the waters of Catcleugh Reservoir glinted in the sun but clouds were now pouring down from the north and the threat of snow was all around us. The exposed car park at Carter Bar wasn't the place to linger so we turned our backs on England and headed back to the icy north.

FACT FILE

Map: OS Sheet 70 Start/finish: Carter Bar (GR 698068)

Distance: 7 miles with 550 feet of ascent

Time: 4-5 hours

Route: Leave the car park at Carter Bar, go through a gate and follow the edge of the plantation on to Catcleugh Shin.

Climb the slopes in a south-west direction, then follow the wide ridge, and fence, to the small cairn that marks the summit of Carter Fell. Leave the cairn, continue south, then south-west to a fence corner with a stile.

Ignore the stile, turn south-east and follow the fence line for about a kilometre.

Climb on to another broad ridge then descend in a north direction to the headwaters of the Bateinghope Burn at some ruined mine workings. From there an old mine track runs in a north-west direction, then north back to the foot of Catcleugh Shin and Carter Bar.