St. Cuthbert's Way, a hike - a pilgrimage - of 100 km/60ish miles, begins and ends with an abbey. The impressive ruins of Melrose Abbey are just around the corner from the trailhead, but we didn't linger there, as we were eager to set off on our trek. The walk ends at the abbey of Lindisfarne, the Holy Isle, on the edge of northeastern England. Over five days we walked from Scotland to England, over fields and farms, stiles and cowgates; through pastures and towns; along stone walls and winding country lanes; past innumerable, incredible views; and around as much of the sheepshit as possible.*
I couldn't remember the whole quote while I was on the trail, but coming back I found this part of A Midsummer Night's Dream a fairly accurate summation of the trip (We also happened to be there during the summer solstice; the light lasted so long there was no need for lanterns or torches):
"How now, spirit! whither wander you?"
"Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through brier,
Over park, over pale,
Through flood, through fire,
I do wander everywhere."
"How now, spirit! whither wander you?"
"Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through brier,
Over park, over pale,
Through flood, through fire,
I do wander everywhere."
Through flood was right on the fourth day, when we ran into some pelting rain in the morning. We dried out a bit in St. Cuthbert's Cave and continued on our way to Fenwick for a thankfully clear evening. Other than that we were mostly lucky with the daytime weather, though it rained several nights and warm, dry socks became my new standard of luxury.
Some of the hills offered pretty good climbs - the views atop Wideopen Hill, the highest point, made it entirely worth it, as did the views from the Eildons. It was fun to to look back at the latter for the first half of the trip and see how far we'd come across the landscape. Other highlights: crossing the border into England, the delight of hot tea, cooking at the end of the day, and wild camping in the woods (happily legal in Scotland). And of course the wonderful company - three of us for the first few days, then four and a dog on the last two.
The last leg (literally on our last legs, as we'd had some knee injuries) took us across tidal flats, squishing through the sand to Lindisfarne. We had lunch on the lovely isle, where the sun had come out to help us celebrate. Some prosecco helped too. We wandered around the abbey, rested and journeyed to Berwick to catch the train back to London in an exhausted heap.
We received warm welcomes in all the towns we went through in Scotland and Northumbria, learning a lot about Northern pronunciation along the way - like 'Berrick' (Berwick), 'Fennick' (Fenwick), and Kirk Yetholm (...there's really no way to render that one phonetically). It was also fun to cross paths with a bunch of friendly travellers along the trail; everyone wants to know a bit about where you're going, or where you're coming from. It's also nice that on a trip like this there is no future or past in the larger sense - only the immediate present of the next turn in the road, the next step, the next destination.
Love,
Annie
*So not much.
The last leg (literally on our last legs, as we'd had some knee injuries) took us across tidal flats, squishing through the sand to Lindisfarne. We had lunch on the lovely isle, where the sun had come out to help us celebrate. Some prosecco helped too. We wandered around the abbey, rested and journeyed to Berwick to catch the train back to London in an exhausted heap.
We received warm welcomes in all the towns we went through in Scotland and Northumbria, learning a lot about Northern pronunciation along the way - like 'Berrick' (Berwick), 'Fennick' (Fenwick), and Kirk Yetholm (...there's really no way to render that one phonetically). It was also fun to cross paths with a bunch of friendly travellers along the trail; everyone wants to know a bit about where you're going, or where you're coming from. It's also nice that on a trip like this there is no future or past in the larger sense - only the immediate present of the next turn in the road, the next step, the next destination.
Love,
Annie
*So not much.