The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Cardrona Forest A peaceful stroll across
Location: Grade: Distance: Time:
THE Tweed is one of the Borders’ most prominent landscape features. The river, which runs through a broad and fertile strath dotted with attractive small towns and villages, has played its full part in the often turbulent history of the area, and sections of it have long acted as the borderline between Scotland and England.
In its central part, green, rounded hills rise either side of the river, their slopes cloaked with trees. When I first came here nearly 40 years ago there were no walking routes or cycle trails and you had to make (or fight!) your own way through. All that has changed, and the area between Peebles and Galashiels is a hub for recreation, with a major mountain bike centre at Glentress Forest. Forest plans take full account of recreational needs and the variety of tree species has increased.
Across the river, Cardrona is a much quieter place and offers the opportunity for a decent walk. The longest of the Cardrona walks – the one followed here – is called Wallace’s Trail, though any connection with the famed patriot seems tenuous at best. No matter, it’s only a name.
When we visited Cardrona pre-lockdown we met one lady walking her dogs and a mother and daughter on horseback, so we had the trail pretty much to ourselves. The route is well used by horse-riders and this has led to the surface getting a bit chewed up in places but it wasn’t a serious problem. The trail is well marked with red-banded posts, and these are numbered at key points to coincide with the free map of the route available locally.
After leaving the car park the trail rises steadily until it is high above the small glen of the Kirk Burn. A couple of kilometres from the start, watch carefully for the red route leaving on the left to climb across the hill (the blue
across the Borders, and may date back to the 16th century. These peel towers were built with strength rather than comfort in mind, at a time when lawlessness and English incursions were common.
The Borderlands were known as the Debateable Land and were home to feuding families who thought nothing of making a swift raid to steal their neighbours’ cattle. If this happened to you and you caught the rustlers you were allowed to administer your own retribution.
There were also gangs of mercenaries available for hire, sometimes known as ‘the free lances’. I can claim a link to them being a freelance myself, but in a more peaceful sense.
In those wild days the Borders were administered by powerful men known as the Wardens of the Marches, appointed by the Scottish king. They reaped their own rewards by playing one side against another and some of them developed into the major landowning families found in the Borders today.
You can reflect on all this as you take in the open views across the Tweed to the relatively new
Cardrona Village development. We had enjoyed our walk, the only slight jarring note being the £3 parking charge levied by the Forestry Commission – but we could put up with that in return for a satisfying walk.
ROGER SMITH
ROUTE
Map: OS 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 73 (Peebles, Galashiels & Selkirk) or 1:25,000 Outdoor Leisure sheet 44 (Tweed Valley). A free Tweed Valley Forest Park leaflet showing the walk is available at Peebles TIC.
Distance: 3.5 miles/6km.
Approx Time: 2-3 hours.
Start/Finish: Cardrona Forest car park, off B7062, 3 miles/5km east of Peebles (GR: NT293384).
Transport: None to the start.
Buses serve Cardrona Village,
1km away. Details from www. travelinescotland.com
Information: Peebles TIC, 01721 723159.
Route: From the car park follow the waymarks and cross the Kirk Burn. Take the left-hand path (blue and red markers), climbing steadily. The path levels out after a while. In 2km from the start at marker post 5 turn sharp left uphill (red markers). Cross a forest road (post 7) and continue climbing then contouring round the hill, descending to another forest road (post 8). Cross this road and walk down the path to briefly join another forest road before leaving it on the left (post 9) to climb, quite steeply at first, up to the old fort. Note that the path passes the fort on the left. After viewing the fort, return to the path and continue downhill, turning right (post 10) to join another forest road (post 11). This road is followed for nearly 3km. A path on the right gives access to Cardrona Tower. The road passes a quarry (post 12) and swings left. When it swings left again at post 13, leave it to go down the path on the right which leads back to the car park by a long series of zig-zags.