The Southern Upland Way: Scotland's Coast to Coast

From Beattock, into the Scottish Borders, staying the night at Over Phawhope Bothy

Tuesday 10th April
Beattock to Over Pawhope Bothy


Dumcrieff House	Dumcrieff woods

We find it a relief to be walking in clean clothes for once. Yesterday we stocked up on sweets at the moffat toffee shop and bought some toffee bonbons, banana and custard sweets, raspberry truffles and some chocolate limes. The Moffat Toffee shop is a good old fashioned sweet shop with tons of jars of sweets, from which you can get a weighed bag full of delights. By the time we'd finished doing everything we wanted to do on our day off, it was very late, so we tried the local campsite, a camping and caravaning club. They were very rude and unfriendly and said it would cost us £12.50 per head because it was high season and we were't members! £25 is over twice as much as we've ever been asked to pay for a campsite before. Thats the price of a more expensive youth Hostel stay! They have a sign outside saying Walkers Welcome and another claiming that non-members are welcome, but don't believe it for one second. We ended up sleeping on the floor at our friends house and getting a lift to Beattock very early in the morning as they went to work. We bought a few postcards, though most were Scotland specific.

We leave Beattock and cross under the motorway. The way follows narrow country roads which cut through fields filled with lambs. The way avoids a large diversion the road takes to go round a small but very steep hill by going straight over it! We pass a large house called Duncrief house and pass into Dumcrieff woods. A sign at the entrance to these woods specifies that persons pass through these woods at their own risk, which sounds a bit foreboding. We speculate as to why the sign is there. Is there a rappist, or an attacker who operates in these woods, or has the council been sued for a twisted ankle caused by uneven paths, and are preventing this from happening again through the warning sign. Its a beautiful twisted old wood, with birds singing in multitudes. The wood empties out by the side of the moffat water, which it follows beside horse jumping equipment. The way then leaves the river and climbs up through farmland. As we approach a cattle grid, Alan finds himself unwilling to cross it due to the pressence of a large bull on the other side. He insisits on walking up the wrong side of a dry-stone dyke and only allows Jo to cross over when the bull is far in the other side of the field. Even then he gets very scared by the approach of several cows.


A scary bull prevents us from entering a field.	Views as we gain higher ground


Something weird peirs over a mound of grass	Its a lama!

Further up the track we are suprised when a head pops up from behind an unusual grassy bump. Unsure what it is we have a look behind the mound to find a llama. Alan curses when he realises that he forgot to post his postcards before he left Moffat.

We continue through grazing farmland,while gradually climbing above Beattock, and soon enter more plantation forest.


One of many clumps of wild flowers.	View back towards moffat


A bridge over to a diversion that may become permanent	The babbling brook where we take a rest. Alan takes the photo using a long exposure to make the water look softer.

Into the woods, and we are soon diverted across to the opposite side of the Cornal Burn due to forest operation. We soon loose the temporary path in a laberinyth of trees, and instead end up following the river as best we can. On one wide bend of the river with a large grassy patch we take a rest, and Alan tries out his camera using a long exposure to make the water look softer. The going gets harder and harder as the trees seem to get closer and closer to the river giving us no space to continue. On reaching a felled area we notice a path 100m to our left, which we correctly decide is the proper diversion route. Crossing over to it is hard as its across a mixture of thick brash and marsh. On rejoining the route, we follow it the short distance back to find out where we went wrong. If we'd headed away from the river when going through the maze of trees we'd be on the right track. This part of the route has been waymarked with proper SUW waymarks so this diversion looks like it could be permanent in the future. When you cross over the bridge head left and not straight ahead down to the river bank. Its very deceptive and we should have been suspisious, though we console ourselves that we are not the first to get lost as there are visible tramplings over our route by the river


We follow the river as best we can having completely lost the path.	On rejoining the path proper we backtrack to find out where we went wrong. The path affords the odd glimpse through the trees.


strange shaped tree by the path through the woods	Views open out after a steep climb.

We continue along the now well defined path of the diversion, which crosses a felled area of trees and zig-zags steeply up the newly planted shoulder of Craigbeck Rig. We find that most of the day has been navigating paths around tree covered hills with the occasional view. Other than that it is a bit tedious, though we are glad not to be on forest track. The path joins a firebreak through mature planation, with a very attractive burn.

Keen to get out of plantation forest we trudge on, eventually rejoining the non-diversion route of the SUW. After an hour of track walking, we emerge from the forest and take the opportunity to have a quick lunch break, cramped onto a steep hillside beside the track. Its steep enough that we have a job handling food and Alan is dismayed when some delicious scran rolls away from him.

We continue on along the track until it eventually leads us to a hairpin bend with a path leadin off up a hill. Greatly relieved for the change of scenery, Alan immediately decides that the forested path is worthy of a panarama. The path follows the Whamphray Water up the valley between Croft Head and West Knowe, and we are delighted when it emerges from forest at the top.


At the top of hill its into thick forest, with leaflet boxes.	River through forest


The sheep thing below the cats shoulder where the path turns off.	Looking back down the Cat Shoulder

A big scree sloped hill emerges in front of us, and a sign advertises that there is a new path going up here, which is called the Cat Shoulder, a shoulder of the hill Croft Head. A sign tells us that as its newly laid, it should not be walked on until Spring 2007 - its Spring 2007 now. This path is laid out with SUW markers, possibly an escape route leading off to the main road as the next section could be dangerous in bad weather. Given we've powered our way through the day so far on forest tracks, we decide to climb the Cat Shoulder for a view before returning to our route. The path zig-zags up the shoulder of the hill in a steep scar, which should fade over time as the path is designed to allow grass to grow on it.


The steep side of the Cat Shoulder, looking back to the forest which we've been in all day.	Cairn at the top of the Cat Shoulder


Return to the valley	An interesting bridge

After a partially obscured view due to mist coming in, we head back down to the sheep circle and the SUW route. Passing through a kissing gate in a deer fence, Jo encounters problems. The gate is so narrow she can barely get into it, and eventually has to reverse her large rucksack back into the corner. This gate was not made for people with large packs!

The precarious path takes us high on the side of a narrow V-shaped valley, with cliffs on the opposite side. There are warnings in the guide book about this section and that it may become impassable in winter. Alan finds it quite an experience, giving a very adventurous feeling to our adventure. Its not long before this slightly unnerving section is over, and we come to a new designer bridge across the burn. We continue through the valley, up left out of it and then at the highest point, cross a fence with a sign saying Welcome to the Scottish Borders. We are leaving Dumfries and Galloway!


photo of the border	Over Pawhope bothy has two buildings to it!

We still have another mile and a half of walking to do, and its onto foot bone crunching forest track again! This takes us down to Over Pawhope Bothy, which is quite a sizeable thing. We arrive to find the fire going, the candles all lit, but no-one home, though there is a car parked nearby. We start cooking and warming up by the fire, and not long after notice a couple of boys and their father arrive back at the car with an air rifle. They see us and obviously change their mind about coming back, because 10mins later they are gone! That was after a clean up in Moffat yesterday! We read in the guestbook the boys entry, and the actomans entry - he didn't make it here last night as he'd planned! Looking back through the entries we discover that the father and son couple we met at the beehive bothy passed through here 4 days ago! Thery're really pushing the pace! For once we have plenty of daylight left, and so take the time to learn how to chop bothy wood - with success! We find sawing wood much harder, but together manage to saw a piece of a large log. After dark we settle down next to the fire, Alan with a beer he finds. Alan gives Jo a foot massage while trying to read an old copy of TGO magazine and an interesting article on photography techniques. Its our first night with a bothy to ourselves - brilliant! Alan worries about axe murders all night, and even sleeps with the bothy axe near to him for protection. There's a couple of rooms in the bothy, one with a large sleeping platform with room for 6 people, one with a couple of scrawny looking bunkbeds which you wouldn't want to go near, and a separate building with sleeping platforms but no fire. The separate building has cold cobble floors with a raised platform round two of the edges which would sleep 4 people. Some people are really generous with what they leave (we find tea and milk and beer), and some other people are rather disgusting with what they leave (A box full of rubbish including old fast food burger wrappers). Do people not know that there is no rubbish collection here?


Alan takes a swing at a log with the bothy axe.	We settle down next to the fire after dark, and Alan helps himself to a beer kindly left by some previous occupant.

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The Southern Upland Way: Scotland's Coast to Coast

From Beattock, into the Scottish Borders, staying the night at Over Phawhope Bothy

Tuesday 10th April Beattock to Over Pawhope Bothy

Tuesday 10th April
Beattock to Over Pawhope Bothy