A Sonsy Matron

The picturesque market town of Peebles offers the perfect blend of breathtaking scenery and centuries-old heritage

- Cameron McNeish

WE had climbed up from St Mary's Loch past the square keep of Dryhope Tower, crossed the rolling tops of Blake Muir and were now making our way slowly to the top of Dun Rig, the highest in a line of hills that run between Innerleithen and Megget.

We had been backpacking from Yarrow to Peebles in the Scottish Borders, and the spring sun had long gone by the time we found some shelter for our little tents.

Camping high in the hills in a Scottish autumn can be a bitterly cold experience, but not always without reward, and come morning our optimism was justified. A temperature inversion had produced a sea of cloud that now covered the valley bottoms below us – a low-level layer of cloud from which the rolling ridges of the Borders rose like islands.

Our descent route lay to the north towards Peebles, a route that runs high above Glensax by way of an old drovers' road that would have once been used every autumn when the small and mainly black Highland cattle were driven south on long-established routes from the famous cattle trysts or markets.

In 1770, the Michaelmas Tryst was established at Falkirk, and no less than 30,000 cattle were sold there in a week. Once the buyers – predominantly English farmers – had bought their herds, the common practice was to hire local drovers to drive the cattle south into England.

This was the route we now followed to Peebles. High above the cloud-sea that filled Glensax, we marched along the route of the drovers with not another person in sight. What a contrast to the heaving, sweaty throng of cattle, dogs and men of earlier times, making their way south towards the border with England.

Beyond Kirkhope Law and Kailzie Hill, parallel drystone walls still mark out the route of the drove road and offer some hint of the scale of these old cattle droves. The walls that once marked out the route are a good 60 feet apart! neighbouring Hundleshope Heights to form a high-level walking route.