Day 2 – Harestanes to Kirk Yetholm (17.5 miles)
This is the longest stretch on the whole of St. Cuthbert’s Way, and it also includes the steepest climb – it was a very tough day. Before lunch we walked from Harestanes Vistor Center to Morebattle, which according to the guide book is 10 miles – but with three different mileage calculators running, none of us came up with a distance of less than 11 miles. However, for the most part this was very far from a hardship. This walk included some of the most beautiful scenery and walks we have seen so far, and the weather was glorious.
We had one interesting interruption, when we found that part of the Way had been taken over by a very large bull, along with a bunch of cows and calves. After much discussion, we slipped through a gate into the field alongside the lane with the bull, and crept by – very, very quietly! Everything went fine – the bull was impressively large and grumpy-looking, but also appeared to be fairly lazy – and soon we were back on track and onto the next stage of the hike. Unfortunately Gilli again started having foot pain after about 7 miles, so she ended up stopping in Cessford while the rest of us went ahead to get the car from Morebattle to pick her up. The stretch from Cessford to Morebattle is all along paved roads, for close to three miles – that was very hard going, after a long walk already.
We finally arrived at the pub in Morebattle at 2:30pm, to discover that they had stopped serving lunch at 2. No worries – we lunched on beer and/or cider, crisps and lemon cake – plus whatever we happened to have in our backpacks, in the way of cereal bars, candy etc. Fully replenished, we set off on the next stretch, to Kirk Yetholm – however Gilli (very wisely) sat this part out. The climb from Morebattle to the tops of the hills to the southeast was pretty brutal – steep and long. As we neared the top of the first hill, the rain that had been forecast for the late afternoon finally reached us, somewhat spoiling the gorgeous views from the tops of Grubbit Law and then Wideopen Hill, the highest point on the hike (and also the halfway point of St. Cuthbert’s Way!), but it didn’t dampen our spirits. That didn’t happen until we had made our way almost all the way down to the valley on the far side of the hills, at which point we had to walk along a disused lane overgrown with tall, very wet grass. By the time we reached the bottom, boots and pants were soaked, despite our rain gear, and we had to squelch the last 2 1/2 miles or so along the road into Kirk Yetholm. Gilli was waiting there for us, and drove us back to Jedburgh for a nice warm shower, followed by dinner, and as soon as possible, bed. 🙂
