Along the Waverley Route

The Waverley Route was the name given to a railway line connecting Carlisle with Edinburgh, running through the wild countryside of the border region between England and Scotland. It was an incredibly difficult route to build and to operate with many steep gradients, impressive viaducts and tunnels. With the line also featuring numerous curves, it has been said that in the days of steam, this route was more challenging to operate than the West Coast main line crossing over Shap and Beattock. 

Apart from the terminal cities, it served places such as Hawick, Galashiels and Melrose along the way, plus numerous smaller settlements and various branch lines. Not surprisingly, it was one of the many routes that met with Dr Beeching's displeasure and eventually closed to passengers in January 1969 and barely hanging on to its goods service along part of the route for a few months longer. Part of the route has now been re-opened, now terminating at Tweedbank situated between Galashiels and Melrose with passengers numbers far exceeding expectations.

To promote the line, the operator - the North British Railway - named it in favour of the Waverley novels of Sir Walter Scott set in the area and whose house, Abbotsford, is close to the line.

We stayed for a week in early July at Melrose and wandered along the route exploring the scenery. The border area is one that visitors usually rush through (or around), but certainly repays further exploration.

All set up at Melrose Gibson Park Caravan Club site.

Our journey from Bamburgh was carefully planned using a variety of tools taking into account the length, width and weight of our caravan. I've been able to "crack" the code for the car's inbuilt sat-nat and so have been able to  plan the route in advance  on the home computer and adjust it to only use suitable roads and then load it onto the car, thus avoiding narrow roads, impossible bends and weight restrictions. 

Or so I thought... One minor glitch occurred leaving the village of Belford following a B road towards Wooler. We had the road to ourselves, the weather was bright and sunny and the scenery is lovely. We came to a junction and continued on "our" road - but out of the corner of my eye, I just caught sight of a signpost half hidden in the hedge after the junction. Living in Hampshire, we are quite used to signs being erected after the junction as a lot are done that way here. Checking the sign, it was an advance warning of a prohibition a couple of miles ahead for vehicles over 3 tonnes and greater than 6 feet wide. Car and caravan combined are around 3.6 tonnes and 7 ft 6 ins wide. The only option was  to reverse back to the junction and follow the signposted route.

Sir Walter Scott

A bust of Sir Walter Scott displayed in his house, Abbotsford

A prolific author, Sir Walter Scott also promoted the entire concept of "Scottishness", popularising the wearing of Tartan and generally promoting the romantic culture of Scotland. Along with the Waverley novels mentioned above, notable works included Rob Roy and Ivanhoe. amongst his poetic works, one extract has fallen into common usage and is frequently attributed to Shakespeare. OK, so if you are going to attribute a saying to someone, the Bard of Stratford is a reasonable guess as you are more that likely to be right:

Oh! what a tangled web we weave

When first we practise to deceive!

So being in the area, one of the first places to visit was Walt's gaff at Abbotsford. Another of Scott's interests was promoting Scottish Baronial architecture, clearly displayed at Abbotsford.

Abbotsford - the architectural style is clearly visible

Another view of Abbotsford seen this time from the garden

The house shows off Scott's collection of "stuff" - of which there is plenty, particularly arms and suits of armour. The guide to the house is interesting in that it takes the usual form of an electronic device that gives a description of each room but has several programs, one of which is voiced by an actor who is acting as Sir Walter Scott showing his newest friend around the property.

The entrance hall is stuffed with suits of armour and deer stalking trophies

A small library used as Scott's writing study

The main drawing room in the house decorated with Chinese wallpaper

and finally in this section, the dining room

 Wandering a little further later in the week took us to Selkirk. On a Saturday afternoon, we were expecting a busy little market town having carefully avoided visiting earlier in the week on half day closing day. But it was so quiet, I doubt it would have really made any difference. Sat on the A7, the main road from Carlisle to Edinburgh (the same route as the railway), the town has suffered a little from the loss of traditional industries and the hi tech replacements that have since left, but, on the other hand, it has not been ravished by modern development. Slap bang in the centre is this large clock tower sitting above the Magistrates' Court  and in front of which is a statue to long serving local Beak, one Sir Walter Scott.

throwing caution to the wind, I'm stood in the middle of the not particularly busy A7 taking this photograph

Inside is a replica Court room showing Scott in the Chair, but without his "wingers" dispensing justice to all and sundry. The court room is more comfortably furnished than I recall the Courts in Southampton being equipped. We did get a jug of water to drink from at our peril - on a Monday morning, it usually had a layer of dust on it and the first order from the Bench was to request a replacement.

For the benefit of tourists, there is a gavel on the Bench to show we are in a Court. British Courts have NEVER used gavels.

Around Melrose

Somewhat off the tourist trail, Melrose is a quiet border own with plenty to recommend it as a touring base. Its primary claim to fame is probably the remains of the Abbey - so we headed there first. During the previous week, most of Europe, including the UK had been subject to a heatwave, but the area around Bamburgh where we had previously been was the exception. It was nice to finally see the sun in Melrose!

The Abbey has been bashed around a little and much was rebuilt when it was re-purposed as a Parish Church for Melrose. The picture above was taken from the location of the Cloisters and the people stood by the doorway give an idea of the size of the building.

While we were walking around, an American tourist approached me and asked if I knew where the the pig playing the bagpipes could be found! I couldn't smell alcohol on her breath and she didn't look as though she had slipped away from her minder, so answered simply that I did not. Whereupon, I was told that it was a gargoyle. So the most likely place to find it was at the joint between the roof and the walls.

and, sure enough, one of the gargoyles is a pig playing bagpipes. Clearly a mason with a sense of humour

More Castles and Stately Piles

We'd collected a supply of tourist leaflets and discovered that even though there is a reciprocal arrangement between the National Trust and the Scottish version, there's very few Scottish National Trust properties in the Borders. So we were going to have to pay to visit anywhere! To complicate matters, a lot of the places we wanted to visit only open for a few days each week, so a little advance planning was needed. advance planning of course amounts to "where shall we go today?" whereas strategic planning means "shall we go out today?".

First place to visit was Thirlestane Castle, close to the village of Lauder. Like many Scottish Castles and Stately Homes, this is still inhabited and so has a completely different feel to many of their English equivalents.

The first impression is spectacular, to say the least!

Each room has a guide who is happy to provide as much detail about the house and "their" room as you want. As the next four pictures show, the house gives the feeling of being comfortable. Regular visitors are our distant relatives Phil and Betty, along with their two eldest children, Chas and Anne.

Just creeping into the pictures above are the ceilings. All I can say is "WOW!" A major improvement on even the most exotic Artex and all created by hand, mostly without the use of moulds

I wanted a good photograph of the ceiling in one of the rooms. The only way to do this was to lay on the floor, looking up

Main dining room with ornate ceiling and rogues gallery of friends and family on the wall

Next on the list was Floors Castle situated on the edge of the small town of Kelso. 

Again, it is a castle that is still lived in with the family of the Duke of Roxburghe living in a wing of the house to the right of the picture and out of sight. When the house is closed to the public, they move back into the main house. As such, it is full of family treasures and rare works of art. No doubt, as a requirement of insurance and to prevent would be burglars from casing the joint, photography inside the house is prohibited.

So we have this second picture of the house and one from the extensive gardens instead

a bed of delphiniums in the extensive walled garden

Our final house visit in the area was to Mellerstain House & Gardens. It's another large property where the owner is still in residence and again retains the feel of a house rather than a museum piece. It was partly designed by Robert and William Adam and while the exterior and general layout was specified by the owner, the interior was left to the Adam brothers to do as they saw fit. The result is quite stunning

The house, looking back from part way down the formal garden

Looking towards the lake

We arrived a little before the house opened and so had a quick wander around the garden. Overlooking the garden is a formal terrace, which overlooks a grass slope leading down to a lake with a tree covered island in the centre of it. It created a sense of deja-vu and I realised that it was remarkably familiar to Leigh Park Gardens close to where I lived as a child. This too had been a large house that had been demolished prior to the estate being purchased by Portsmouth Corporation for housing, but the garden has been retained as a country park. The view from the terrace here is almost identical.

Once inside the house, it is another self-guided walk around with the section of the house overlooking the lake being the Adam part and most recent. If you like Adam style architecture, you will like this place:

light, airy and comfortable. You could almost live here today

detail of the wall frieze

huge amount of detail in the ceiling and unusual choice of colour

and naturally an Adam fireplace

The bedroom shown above is interesting for the wooden chest and wardrobe, behind me as I was taking the picture. The furniture is made from a South American hardwood called Manchineel. This bears fruit which look like apples, but are highly poisonous, the sap from the leaves causes skin burns, as does any water run off from the surface of the leaves. The timber itself will burn the skin if it comes into contact and the sawdust causes serious breathing problems. The only safe way to work the timber is under water. Despite all this, it has an attractive colour and grain - but I can't help thinking that a flat pack from IKEA might be less trouble.

All of this used up our allocated eight days in Melrose; the journey home was via the A7 to Carlisle followed by the M6 to Birmingham and then M40, A34, M3 and M27 home. Without jobs to rush back to, we broke the journey in Cheshire for two nights, caught up with some friends who live in the area and took the opportunity to visit the former family home at Dunham Massey. OK - so I might be stretching a point there, but the house was home to the Earls of Warrington and I'm sure I must be related somewhere along the line.

Dunham Massey

We stopped for two nights close to Northwich at a caravan park called Lamb Cottage. Other than a little aircraft noise from Manchester Airport, this is a very quiet location and - typical of sites that have fully serviced pitches where you don't need the site facilities - toilets and showers that put many hotels to shame. The wet weather caught up with us and our plan to visit Tatton Park went by the way as the house wasn't open while we were there. Hence the trip to Dunham Massey. those who watch something on the television called "Coronation Street", which I am told is one of those soap opera things [I've not watched it since Emily Nugent turned down Mr Swindley's offer of marriage] would recognise the place as it is frequently used as a set for the many weddings that occur.

As I said, it was the seat of the Earls of Warrington, so I'm sure if I tried hard enough, I could find a family connection - and being the eldest son of the eldest son (etc) going back at least 6 generations, I wonder if I could contest the will that donated the estate to the National Trust? In the meantime, we'll have to rely on our membership to get us in. It is set in a deer park, so the first few pictures show a selection of stags chilling out on the lawn. The does, having recently given birth were all elsewhere on the estate

Having made what I was told were inappropriate comments about venison sausages, we went on the tour of the house

We had hoped to do a tour of the gardens after lunch - but the weather had other ideas with several hours of torrential rain. Naturally, we had thought that there was little chance of rain that day, so we'd left the coats behind. And that ends this trip. We'll be off again very soon.