Tuesday 19 June – Melrose to Innerleithen
We’d heard (vaguely) of the Scottish Borders and of course Peter had been here briefly in 2015, but we knew very little otherwise.
What we have come to realise is the wealth of history, sights and places to visit they have! It has to have more stately homes, abbeys, castles, festivals, places of historic interest and events per square mile than virtually any other part of the UK.
Last night was the perfect example, with the pipe band and the parade of horses. As we found out today, this wasn’t unique to Melrose: all through Tweed-dale there are all sorts of events and festivities this week.
We set out from Melrose, along the River Tweed, and soon came to its ‘big brother’, Galashiels. Just three years ago the railway link to Edinburgh was reinstated, making the town and its surrounding villages even more accessible. It struck us that, with a number of disused railway lines in the area having been converted to ‘rail trails’ and cycleways, there was real potential to encourage the sorts of short-term cycle and walk-based holidays we’ve seen in places like Central Otago in New Zealand. There’s certainly enough things to see, and places to stay!
Our nod to the countryside came in the form of the Southern Uplands Way, a long-distance path through the Borders. We followed it out and up, getting some lovely views, before descending to the Tweed. We decided not to follow the Way on its circuitous and very hilly path to Innerleithen, instead picking up the trail of Cycle Route 1 along a very quiet lane by the Tweed. Not only was it a lot more level and easy, it also had some truly scenic glades to go through. That’s what we call a win-win!
We’d heard about a shop selling delicious ice creams in Innerleithen – and as luck would have it, our path took us down the main street and right past it! Well, we just had to stop, didn’t we? Chocolate for Val, banoffee for Peter, most delicious. Just ten minutes after that we were at Glede Knowe, our B&B and a very fine place it is, too.
We had dinner in the Traquair Arms just down the road. We can certainly vouch for the steak & ale pies, but Peter was in seventh heaven when he saw their whisky selection – there had to be close on thirty different ones. Ah, bliss!
Distance today: 27km / 17 miles
Tweed-dale:
Scrumpy to Scotch 
It certainly does seem to have a high density of abbeys and stately homes, possibly because the countryside and weather are more amenable in the south than the wilder parts of the country.
You’ll still see quite a few in the Central and North though – Scotland is not short on space, or wealthy families. 432 families privately own more than 50% of the entire country (or did in 2013).
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