The Southern Upland Way: Scotland's Coast to Coast

From Over Phawhope Bothy to St Mary's Loch with a meal at Tibbie Shiels Inn

Wednesday 11th April
Over Pawhope Bothy to St Mary's Loch


We follow the road up the valley	The road up the valley follows a river

We wake up to a new day and for the first time notice the wall decorations of our room for the night. There are 6 posters telling us how to identify six different tree species, which we failed to noitce the night before as we didn't enter the room until after dark. We learn how to identify Sitka Spruce, Larch, Scot's Pine, Oak and Ash. Basically Sitka Spruce is a christmas tree, Larch is an unusual looking christmas tree which sheds its leaves in winter and has colourful buds on it, Scot's pine is a cross between a christmas tree and the trees you associate with Africa. Ash is a deciduous tree with oval shaped leaves, while Oak has multi-fingered large serated leaves.

As we prepare to leave the bothy, 5 ladies walk in, who plan to walk up to the ravine we came through last night. We tell them about the new path up the cats shoulder.

A not so early start, and we walk up the valley on road by one of the tributaries to the River Tweed. There is something going on here called the Tweed River Project, which involves improving the tributaries for salmon. Rivers like this are no longer a suitable environment for salmon because there is little vegitation along the banks, erosion causing the water to be subject to wide temperature variations, and generally a lack of protection for the fish causing them to die out. The Tweed River Project aims to provide a better environment for the salmon.

We're on a single track tarmac road which takes us along, halfway up the valley side with a burn below and a telegraph pole. Alan keeps refering to the bothy we stayed in last night as a Youth Hostel, and Jo tries to drill into his mind the difference between the two. It looks like we'll be spending half the day on this road, meaning sore feet and boring scenary. This does however mean we'll make a fast pace, making up for sleeping in. Even though this valley is pretty boring stuff compared to yesterday afternoons walk through the v-shaped ravine it will pass pretty fast because its a good road. We continue on for 5 or 6 miles past cottages, farmland, sheep (unusual black sheep with white faces) and over the odd tributary. Jo ties a sleeve of her fleece onto Alan's rucksack so he can pull her along. The maps we bought with the official guidebook aren't holding up so well, and are tearing badly at the folds.


Narrow road with passing places	We pass the odd house


Finally we turn off the road, with the Souther Upland Way marker displaying the E2 long distance transeuropean path symbol.	We pass over the hills used to graze sheep.

We turn off on the public footpath over to St Mary's Loch. An E2 sign is also visible here. The E-paths are long distance paths which go across Europe, each passing through several European countries and connecting up existing paths. The E2 follows the first half of the Southern Upland Way before heading South, covering the whole of the Pennine way and continuing to the Southern Tip of Britain, across the Channel to Continental Europe and continuing on until it reaches the mediteranian sea. Thats an awfully long way!

We eat a large lunch in a field just above the road, in the knowledge that we are going to stuff ourselves with good pub food when we reach St Mary's Loch. After lunch we follow the path up a v-shaped valley up onto plain grassy moorland, with a sheep circle and fences. At the top of the pass the view open out and the hills emerge. St Mary's Loch is not in sight yet, but we can tell from our map which hills it lies between. This is a bland, sheep-grazed u-shaped valley.


We reach a high point in the path and anticipate some downhill walking, though not for long as we need to climb that hill ahead.	Reahing the summit of Earl's Hill we are disappointed to find our view of St Mary's Loch obscured by a larger hill - Bowerhope law. Lucky we just need to round this one!


Looking across the valley to Earl's Hill where the path will take us.	We glimpse the Loch of the Lowes.

We head towards the Sitka Spruce (we're already putting those posters to good use) covered hill, named Earl's Hill. To do this the path skirts round the side of Peniestone Knowe onto the side of the valley named Pikestone Rig. Down in the valley below, we spy the Loch of the Lowes, once part of St Mary's Loch, now separated by a thin strip of land. This is a pleasant elevated walk through the hills. We wind down to the valley floor by an assortment of different sights. An ancient Scot's pine falling to bits, various sheep containers, and the burn. This is followed by a steep climb out of the valley and up Earl's Hill.

From Earl's Hills its downhill all the way to St Mary's Loch. After a brief passage through the forest. we soon join a broad, winding, grassy track which takes us down to the Loch. Its very attractive, and more importantly, not hard on the feet. We notice how easy it is to tell the younger year old sheep from the older ones as they have bright white shiny faces and good looking wooly coats compared to the bedraggled look associated with older sheep. They also take steps towards you in the hope that you'll provide food rather than immediately bolting in fear.


A broad, grassy track winds its way down the valley to St Mary's Loch.	Our first glimpse of the blue waters of St Mary's Loch.


Jo is quick to make friends with the cat who resides in Tibbie Shiels Inn.	St Mary's Loch reflects the sky almost perfectly.

We arrive at Tibbie-Shiels Inn, the pub situated by the shores of St Mary's Loch where the SUW joins it. We decline their offer of a campspot for £3 per head, with no facilities, only the use of the toilets while the pub is open which we have anyway. Its not a very nice camping spot either. We order a bar meal in their restaurane space and are disappointed by the food, which although very nice, doesn't live up to the promise implied by their caterer of the year award. The date on this award is 2004, so maybe they've gone downhill a bit since then. The pub area is very cramped, and the service is slow due to the number of customers. Having eaten a meal with them, we walk along the shore of St Mary's Loch hoping to come across a suitable place to camp - not so easy in the dark! We find a nice flat area which doesn't appear to be in a field and set up camp hoping that we've found a decent spot. Come morning we realise that we've picked the most beautiful place, near the loch with a stand of larch trees behind us.

The Kist

Alan would call this the most obvious kist of the walk, but only if you spy the ULTREIA sign and are looking for it. It lies between Beattock and St Mary's Loch, and is made by a sculpture. Very small, you could almost mistake it for some scrap metal left behind. Be prepared to get your hands dirty and covered in rusty water!

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The Southern Upland Way: Scotland's Coast to Coast

From Over Phawhope Bothy to St Mary's Loch with a meal at Tibbie Shiels Inn

Wednesday 11th April Over Pawhope Bothy to St Mary's Loch

Wednesday 11th April
Over Pawhope Bothy to St Mary's Loch