The Southern Upland Way: Scotland's Coast to Coast

Journey across Minch Moor, past the cheese well and the three brethren

Friday 13th April
Traquair to Galashiels


The outskirts of Traquair, which has spread out along the main road.	We breifly enter and leave Traquair

Waking up to the sound of the burn, we quickly pack our bags while listening to some very strange sounding whooping electric birds in the field opposite. On entering Traquair, Alan finds himself a post-box, and posts a postcard to his parents. The chance to post his letters has escaped him ever since he left Moffat. Jo thinks it would be nice to go into Traquair and find Traquair House where a cafe sells chocolate cake, but we don't want to break our day up to early. Traquair village centre is a very simple affair with a post box, a telephone box and a large monumental cross to soliders who died in one of the world wars.


The building at the other side of the loch	The inside of Traquair bothy

As we climb out of Traquair there is a great view back to the Tweed valley, and we can see the River Tweed winding. Jo stops to open a gate for a horserider coming up behind. We soon climb up to Minchmoor bothy.

Minchmoor bothy is a cute wee place, constructed by the Airbourne Initiative, Scotland, and completed in December 1996. Its very basic consisting of one room with 6 bunks, a table, but no fire. Its been quite heavily grafittied inside, but its still a lovely looking place to spend the night. We find the guestbook to be completely filled from cover to cover! There's a lovely outlook from it as well although it is plantation land, although you can see back down to Traquair, and you do get a lovely view of the tweed which passes by on the other side of the small village.


Traquair bothy is tiny.	View from the bothy.


From this point, all the circles look the same size and perfectly circular. In reallity they are different sizes and are manly oval in shape.	The sculpture, resolution points consists of a lot of oval shapes cut out of the heather.

The track, which is an old drove road, heads through the forest and out onto the moor, the moor being Minchmoor. Someone has created a sculpture here called Resolution Points. Here, what looks like circles of heather, have been cut out in order to provide space for black grouse to feed on the new shoots of heather. From the point of the sculpture, all the circles look completely circular and of the same size, but from other angles, the circles can be seen to be ovals of very different sizes.

We continue to climb up onto the moor, and pass the Cheese Well, a spring where offerings such as cheese are made to fairys for safe passage across the hill. Alan honours the tradition by leaving a 1p piece here. An information board here talks about the old road and all the important people who came along here. There are constant views down to our left into the Tweed Valley, and a 7 stanes mountainbiking route keeps crossing our path. With the sun getting very hot again, Alan strips practically naked, and Jo does her utmost best to follow suite without breaking the law. Damn those laws!

The minchmoors trek is a really lovely one and we can see the surrounding towns as we rise up onto Minch Moor Hill. A SUW sign points to a viewpoint 400m up to the top of Minch Moor, though it is a branch of the SUW and you would have to return to this point. Alan announces that he will go up to the viewpoint to pass the time while Jo finds somewhere private for toileting purposes. The top is a pretty plain, heather covered plateau with twitering birds. A large summit cairn marks the top. Alan also spies another windfarm.


The cheese well houses a few offerings left by people who wish to cross the moor saftely	The cairn at the top of Minch Moor.


Jo awaits Alans return from the viewpoint, while surrounded by amazing views.	Hare Law, the first of many hills the way passes over as it crosses Minch Moor.

The way passes through a firebreak through the forest for a short while, obscuring the views of the tweed valley, though it is a pleasent grassy path, angled downhill which makes for a nice relaxing walk. We meet several daywalkers along this section. Soon we are out of forest onto moorland, and the way takes us over the tops of many small hills. First its Hare Law, followed by Brown Law and Broomy Law. Its lovely walking constantly surrounded by distant scenery. Not very photogenic due to the scenery being distant and somewhat hazy in the hot weather, but it is very pleasent walking up here amongst the peaks.


A strange green beetle attracts Alan's attention.	The path continues to cross from hill to hill across the top of minchmoor.


We reach a viewpoint with a bench, and looking ahead think we can see 3 bumps on the hill ahead, these being the three brethren.	The peak of the Three Brethren offers more hazy views, and is overshadowed by three massive expertly made cairns.

We are just approaching a hill called the Three Brethren, and squinting into the distance we can see some large conical like structures on the top. A bunch of people walk past, all with similar types of sun hats, something which we regret not taking with us, as we have little protection from the midday sun. The panoramic views from the Three Brethren are fantastic, and we can see over to a group of 3 mystical, fantastical kind of peaks. Must look up name. The brethren themselves are massive professionally built stone cairns. We take a panarama. A guy who stays in Selkirk and is out for a day walk, stops with his son, and they pull out their binoculars. He tells us that he's been out to the 3 mystical peaks (Elderns or something like that) and that they make a lovely day out.

Winding down the hill we get really lovely views of the Elderns, and of the artificially made ponds as well. This is a forested area which is currently deforested. There's a couple of stands of various kinds of trees which we are still unable to identify. We take a picture of a possing red butterfly, which we know isn't a red Admiral, but looks very similar.


We pass a small pond on the way down from the Brethren.	Numerous butterflies can be seen on the path down from the Three Brethren, one which poses for us on the path and allows Alan to get close enough to take a picture.


A forest track takes us down the hill past several stands of different tree types.	Farm machineary lies unused.

The first signs of blossom are coming out, on what we think might be an apple tree. If we were walking a couple of weeks later, everything might be bursting into colour. There are lovely dense stands of silver birch on the slopes down into the glen.


The bridge at Yair	The River Tweed from the Yair bridge.

We pass through Yair and cross the River Tweed by a great arched bridge. Feeling hungrey we look for a shady spot to sit and eat some lunch.

A guy and his bird stop by the track as we fire up the stove for lunch. They've been up the Three Brethren and live nearby. He tells us that they've contemplated doing the SUW before but don't think they'd do it as it involves walking past his own house. Another guy walks past laden with poles and map cases, and he is walking the SUW and we're the first people he has seen. He started on Good Friday, so is going at a pace way faster than us. It would appear that he's going at twice the pace. He's done the Pennine Way which he describes as a bit more ruggid and more difficult than this one.


Sheep fields with lots of cute lambs.	Through bright green farmland.

Up the hill through trees and past a herd of young lambs. We can see Selkirk from the top of the field. Over the moors and we accidently take a wrong turning and mount Hog's Hill. Should really pay more attention to the map, as the waymarking is not as good over this section. We descend the hill and head over to where the map indicates the SUW should be, and refind the path and down over the grazing lands. We're into a mixed forest of Larch and Sitka Spruce. The lambs do a silly gallopy wee kind of trot as they run to their mothers, which adds to their cuteness. Its worth noticing that some of the sheep seem to be limping, especially the ones that don't have lambs following them. We wonder if these ones are pregnant, as they do also look very large. As we enter Galashiels, a sign warns us of SUW route realignment. Does this mean that they are rerouting the path, or just that its getting too squiggly?


Surrounded by rolling green sheep fields, we notice the 3 E's in the distance.	Galashiels is visable in the distance.


We leave the farmland behind and head into Galashiels through the Gala Policies.	Galashiels main street.

Through a wooded area known as the Gala Policies, and we learn that Galashiels is known locally as Gala. We get the impression that we are being taken walkabout throught the Gala Policies, by some badly deface waymarkers and trees. On reaching some road we head in the vague direction of the city centre, and soon get some directions off a friendly local. We help ourselves to a chippy and shop at Tesco. Its a thriving town centre, though Alan comments that the streets aren't that clean.

We get a taxi out to (Its over a mile and we didn't know the way) and stay the night in Kilknowe Caravan Park, which is really just a caravan park, but they'll plot in a tent if you go there. The facilities are pretty dire, with showers, which are held together by metal clamps, and no bog paper in the toilets. There's no power sockets to charge things either. They charge us £8 for the two of us, and we are just glad to be able to have hot showers for once.

The Kist

Found in a secret location on Minch Moor, the kist is small, well hidden within something else, and empty again! We find a 1p piece in it but no waymerks.

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The Southern Upland Way: Scotland's Coast to Coast

Journey across Minch Moor, past the cheese well and the three brethren

Friday 13th April Traquair to Galashiels

Friday 13th April
Traquair to Galashiels