MIDDLE GROUND
Paul McGreal of the Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team explores the wild, yet accessible, treasures of the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway
Even to the best prepared and most experienced walkers, stuff happens. I’ve been a member of Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team for five years and I’ve been caught out by lightning twice. The hills of the Scottish Borders, where I’m based, are rounded so losing height if you’re trying to get down quickly can take time. Recently I was on my own, putting out checkpoint markers for an adventure race I was organising. A storm came in quickly and I counted only two seconds between flash and bang. My schoolboy maths told me lightning was striking 600 metres away and I was the highest thing for a good kilometre in any direction. It’s moments like that when you realise why mountain rescue exists.
If you ask people why they join rescue teams, it’s pretty much because they’ve had that same thought. The outdoors have given us so much, but there’s always the thought that the worst can happen to anyone. Knowing someone can hopefully be there for you before it’s too late is really important. Anyone who signs up to a mountain rescue team is an outdoors enthusiast so it’s about giving something back.
We don’t have typical days. As part of civil defence, we are involved in helping with the management of floods and things like that. People often don’t realise our involvement in searches for missing people which sees us assisting police to look for individuals on rough terrain who might have gone to self-harm, or folks with dementia who have wandered off.
We were involved in a major operation earlier
this year when ten walkers got themselves in bad shape up on the Cheviot, a hill just over the border in Northumberland National Park. The group got stuck on top of the hill in very deep snow, in strong winds and intense cold, but we managed to walk them down in the end. Though some were taken away by stretcher and there were a few hypothermia cases, overall it had a happy ending.
The message that mountain rescue teams shout loud and clear is that the hills are there to be enjoyed. Go out and have fun. Don’t be afraid, don’t be scared. But make sure you have the right kit and that you have means of navigation. A phone on its own won’t do the trick. It has to be a good old-fashioned map and compass. Analogue doesn’t crash or run out of battery. It’s also a good idea to have some understanding of what you are doing and to be aware if there’s a storm around; I’ve learnt that to my cost with lightning.
It took me a while to end up where I wanted to be in life. A few years back, I was a city dweller, based in Edinburgh and working as a project manager in construction in the midst of the recession. It was a really hard environment, very dog-eat-dog, and I basically spent my days arguing with people. That’s something I don’t really enjoy although former colleagues might tell you different! Anyway, I had a revelatory moment whilst driving down the M8 one night and thought, ‘that’s it, I’ve had enough’. So I called my boss whilst at a standstill in traffic and quit. When I arrived home I told my
‘The beauty of the hills in the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, is that they are big enough to be wild but are also quite accessible’
‘The message that mountain rescue teams shout loud and clear is that the hills are there to be enjoyed’
partner and her obvious question was, what now? I didn’t really know, but here we are five years later and I’ve found my true calling through my outdoors adventure company, Durty Events.
We came to the area because we wanted direct access to the hills and the Borders ticked that box. We live in Selkirk which is amazingly located for enjoying walking. You can pretty much go out of the front door and straight up a hill.
The beauty of the hills in the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, is that they are big enough to be wild but are also quite accessible. It’s not like the ridges in Glencoe or Skye where you really have to have your wits about you. Whilst climbing skills aren’t needed here you still get that incredible ‘out there’ feeling. People look north to the Highlands or south to the Lake District and forget about this area in the middle. And it’s not just hills on offer; there are a number of forestry parks and plenty of beaches to explore. In many ways, it’s undiscovered and unspoiled. Every time I go out there is a moment where I say, wow, what a place to live. The whole area is ripe for exploration.
I went out with some mates recently to train for an adventure race. We decided to have an overnighter so we went up the Manor Valley, just west of Peebles. It’s beautiful and remote and empty. Up we went onto Dollar Law, which is a nice, big, classic hill between Peebles and St Mary’s Loch. Darkness fell and we found ourselves a nice patch in the heather and set up a divvy for the night. Waking the following morning, we were astonished to find this incredible panorama out across the reservoir, down to St Mary’s Loch. It wasn’t until dawn had risen that we were aware of where we’d camped.
The Borders, Dumfries and Galloway is a fantastic area for local culture and people here are extremely proud of the region’s history. During summer in the Borders there are the Common Ridings which are wonderful to see and as well as its own common riding Dumfries and Galloway has various annual arts and music festivals throughout the year. You might think it’s quiet and sleepy, but scratch the surface and there is an awful lot going on. In addition to walking, cycling in the region is world-class with places like Glentress in the Borders and Glentrool in Galloway. The road network is also fantastic and the rivers are all kayakable. It’s a real outdoor playground and all on my doorstep.