Scottish Borders HuMPS, TuMPS and Towers

19 April 2018

 

Participants: Neil and Ben

Where: Bemersyde Hill, 229m/751', P57m, TuMP, OS map 74, NT 597 343, Lady Hill, 207m/679', P65m, TuMP, NT 635 345 and Peniel Heugh, 237m/778', P109m, HuMP, NT 654 263, with Scott's View, Smailholm Tower and the Waterloo Monument

 

At last, spring had arrived, and summer too judging by the temperature. It looked from the forecast as if there would be some cloud over a lot of Scotland (so what's new) with the best of the sunshine in the east of the country. So I headed to the eastern Borders.

 

First stop was Scott's View at Bemersyde, a view that features in a million calendars. And why not, on a day like today it is magnificent, looking west to the Eildon Hills. The broom was out too adding a good splash of colour to the foreground.....

Bemersyde Hill is immediately above the viewpoint, accessed by a gate opposite the car park. Same view but not so good as from the lower viewpoint.....

The top is a flat grassy field and the highest point seems to be a point about 50m south of the radio mast. The best of the view in other directions was north to Black Hill above Earlston.....

Then it was a few miles east to Smailholm Tower and Lady Hill to its west. The Tower is well worth seeing, a simple rectangular building sat on top of volcanic rock....

  

It was built in the mid-15th century when the Pringles were lairds of Smailholm estate and features strongly in the stories of the Border reivers. In the mid-17th century, the estate was sold to the Scotts. the most famous of whom was of course the poet Sir Walter Scott. The upper floors of the Tower now house an exhibition of costume figures and tapestries by Border artists illustrating the link between Scott, Smailholm and his Border ballads. The figures by themselves are worth the entrance fee; here are photos of a couple.....
 

 

I had brought Ben to the Tower as it was too hot a day to leave him in the car but of course he had to stay tied up outside while I wandered about. The sound of whining meant that I had less time than I would have wanted to see all of the detail of the exhibits; he was obviously anxious to get up the hill! Lady Hill is a ridge immediately to the west of the Tower; this is it through a Tower window with the Eildon Hills also in the frame.....

During the Cold War, the Royal Observer Corp erected an observation post on the summit, next to the trig. It was intended to be used to track high-speed jet aircraft.....

The Eildon Hills were with us all day.....

The trig and the Tower.....

South now, almost to Jedburgh, for a look at the Waterloo Monument at the top of Peniel Heugh. I had never been before, although I had seen it from a distance.....
 

 

It is 150 feet high and built between 1817 and 1824 to, of course, commemorate the Battle of Waterloo. Unfortunately it is not open to the public but the summit of the hill is an outstanding viewpoint. We approached it from a minor road to the west, through a wood initially and then across a field, all signed. The approach.....

This photo of the Monument with the trig to its left hand side gives a good impression of its height.....
 

 

 There is a seat just before reaching the Monument.....

and another view of the Eildon Hills.....

 

 

A grand bit of country.