CALMNESS IS CATCHING
Fishing can soothe the soul — and where better than in the peaceful Scottish Borders
A HOMELY trail of bluish smoke curls from a chimney, promising open fires within, the house itself pink and cosy against a great wooded bank. And, yes, a river runs through it, or at least, just across the lush green sward of meadow that is its doorstep.
There, oystercatchers and swallows duck and dive, freshly arrived from Africa and celebrating the spring sunshine.
The Boathouse on Tweed is a splendid fishing lodge, surveying a 900-yard ‘beat’ of fine salmon river with the walled estate of Ladykirk beyond in Scotland.
While the house is in England, the river is the living border. Hence the fish are designated Scottish, meaning, in legal terms, that this is perhaps the only river in the UK where you can fish for salmon and migratory trout without a licence (the Scots don’t require one).
We are here to test the premise that fishing is good for one’s psychological well-being.
To which one can only say, it depends. If you are the sort of person who cares desperately about catching fish, then salmon fishing is not your sport.
‘Och, you should have been here last week — the conditions were perfect,’ as a thousand ghillies have been heard to say.
‘Today,’ they add with a sucking intake of regretful breath, ‘it is a bit too sunny (or overcast), the water too high (or low); the wind in the wrong direction.’ So it goes.
The joy of fishing, as any experienced fisherman will tell you, lies in the fishing, not in the catching.
And where better to idle away the day than at The Boathouse where once, in 1922, a 51 lb monster was landed, the biggest-ever salmon caught on the Tweed.
The Boathouse itself is 100 per cent delightful. Supremely comfortable without being pretentious, it has four wellappointed bedrooms with lavish bathrooms attached, a cosy sitting room with open fire and a TV snug for the screen-addicted.
Our party ignores the large dining room and eats in the snug or out on the terrace overlooking the river in a neat, but informal garden that has a discreet nook for early evening drinks.
Our hosts, Mark and Rohaise French, who farm locally, have ensured the fridge is stuffed with delicious prepared meals by Sarah Laing’s Country Catering, an outstanding outfit from Hawick, which commands no fewer than 13 five-star ratings for her fresh, locally sourced and imaginative meals. We rated her six stars.
That said, no mention of the Boathouse can pass without a shout out for R.G Foreman and Sons, the celebrated local butcher in Norham, the village, whose wares also include sandwiches, pies, fine cheeses, wines and, should the mood take you, waders and salmon flies, if not the actual fish themselves.
Norham also is home to a famous ruined castle, but of the two, Mr Foreman’s butcher’s shop is the more celebrated with people driving miles to patronise it.
The Boathouse is just a 15-minute taxi ride from Berwickupon-Tweed and there is masses nearby to see, including Holy Island about half an hour away, where the mysterious ‘ har’ fogs drift across causeway and mudflats. Just don’t forget to check the tides.
A few miles on, The Ship Inn at Low Newton by the Sea serves the best crab sandwich in England — far easier than hooking a salmon.
TRAVEL FACTS
THREE nights at The Boathouse (sleeps ten) from £1,393.50, crabtreeandcrabtree.com,
01573 226711. Fishing with a ghillie on the Boathouse private beat from £100 per day.