Towards Doddington from the Cheviot Hills near Wooler, Northumberland. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Country diary 1968: following the line of the Scottish border

This article is more than 5 years old

11 October 1968 It is easy to see the ample evidence of early man as well as more recent night-walkers who followed these tracks with smuggled whisky

Northumberland/Roxburghshire
This is the month for one of my favourite walks, following the stone wall, called the Marcher Dyke, that leads north from the Cheviot along the line of the Scottish border. It bounces gently from rounded summit to summit, from the Schil to Black Hagg, down the Steer Rig to Whitelaw. Leaving the border by the Stob Stones, the track drops westwards into Halterburn, thence to Kirk Yetholm, the “gate town” of Scotland. Not the least of its pleasures is the easy gradient downhill over fairly open moorland with extensive views over the Tweed Valley, even to the Eldon Hills above Melrose, beloved by Sir Walter Scott.

History in a remote graveyard

With the bracken low and the ground firm, it is easy to see the ample evidence of early man, the cairns, the tumuli, the camp sites, and the marvellous bird’s eye view of the hill fort on Green Humbleton. But the particular quality of the walk lies in the sense of following a border over ground that remained debatable for so many centuries of warfare. Even on eighteenth-century maps, the border remained undefined. Names like White Swire and Whitelaw Nick mark the passes used by raiders from both sides. I like to think, too, of the more recent night-walkers who followed these quiet tracks with smuggled whisky, much to the distress of the parson at Yetholm who recorded in 1841 that one sixth of his parishioners were involved in the trade. Now the main path marks the last thankful stage for the hikers who have completed the arduous route of the Pennine Way.