DISCOVER BERWICK AND THE BORDERS

Visit a spectacular frontier town this winter to explore its hinterland of epic rivers, historic houses and woodlands sparkling with frost, says Susie White

- Susie White

On a winter morning by the Tweed, every umbel of hogweed, every bristly head of burdock stands crisply outlined in frost. Avenues of poplars reflect perfectly in the water and the “Tweed’s fair river, broad and deep” lives up to the poetry of Sir Walter Scott. For a region with a violent past, today is tranquil and full of natural beauty, a place to experience in its winter skin.

The journey of discovery can start at Berwick-upon-Tweed, one of the most important fortified towns of Europe. With its strategic position at the mouth of the river, Berwick was frequently fought over by England and Scotland. Changing hands 13 times, the town finally became English in 1482. You can walk the whole circuit of the Elizabethan ramparts and look giddily down on to the arrow-shaped bastions, grass-topped, jutting out, their huge earthen banks built to absorb the impact of cannon fire. Narrow gates in the massive town walls could be closed at night for safety.

That magical sense of an enclosed town by the sea fired my imagination as a child. Travelling north on the overnight sleeper from London, I peeped from the cabin window as the train trundled over the 28 arches of the Royal Border Bridge, a full moon rising over the estuary.

Walking on top of the walls gives the best view of Berwick’s many architectural gems. There are nearly 300 listed buildings, many in the pink sandstone that gives them a defined and warm character. Some derive from the turbulent past: the magazine where gunpowder was stored and the solid barracks built in 1711 to the design of Nicholas Hawksmoor, the distinguished architect. Others were the houses of prosperous merchants from the town’s days as a trading port.