9th July 2015
Newcastleton is the last of the 7 Stanes that I had left to
cycle. So the wife, decided to book into a B&B for a two day break.
We stayed at Abbotshaw House B&B which is a working
sheep farm. I can highly recommend this as an excellent place to stay.
Abbotshaw House is only two miles from the trailhead at Newcastleton and well
away from the busy roads.
Abbotshaw House B&B
We got up to a nice sunny morning and the breakfast was
fantastic - we were spoiled for choice with an extensive menu. Could this day
get any better!!
We arrived at the trailhead only to discover that it had
been moved to the centre of Newcastleton village, we decided to park at the Priesthill Car Park
which is only a few hundred meters from the original trailhead.
Priesthill car park
Once organised, we headed up the forest road past Dykecrofts,
to the old trailhead. Just before reaching the top of the hill you turn left
and continue uphill, through a gate, which brings you to the skills area. We amused ourselves here for a short time, then followed the purple waymarker route past
Castlehill. Following this route for a few kilometres you arrive at the “Border
Stane”.
The Border Stane is a large granite stone in the shape of an
aeroplane tail; it stands approximately 10ft tall by 5 ft wide and 2-3ft thick
with a large hole in the centre. The stone has been placed in a way that if you
stand on one side of it and look through the hole you see Scotland and the
other side England. On the north facing side there is an inscription of “Auld Lang
Syne” and the opposite side is an inscription of “Jerusalem”.
Continuing left on the forest road you will come to a
waymarker and emergency post where you can either continue on the purple route
or as we did, follow the single track red route. At the next forest road turn
right and continue along the road till you come to another waymarker where you
turn left onto a single track red route.
Once you get to the next forest road you turn right and
follow the road to the junction where you turn left up the hill. Follow the
waymarkers towards “Swarf Hill” and you end up back at the skills area where
you can have a break at the wooden seats.
Skills area rest point
The next trail is a very nice downhill section called “The Caddrouns”
which brings you to another emergency post, where you turn left. Continue along
this forest road and you come to the next single track section called “Pouter
Lampert”, a very long but enjoyable section. This eventually leads you back to
Priesthill Car Park.
Trail back to Priesthill car park
Trail back to Priesthill car park
It was at this point that we decided to try the new section
of trail that takes you down to Newcastleton Village and the new trailhead. We arrived
at Newcastleton village and looked around and saw about eight bikes sitting
outside a café called the Copshaw Kitchen. The wife said “would you like
something to eat”, to which I replied “married for thirty years and you still
ask silly questions like that”. So off we went and had lunch in the café. Lunch
consisted of a BLT and coffee for me and macaroni with a twist for the wife. The
cyclists that were in the café were doing a charity ride for “Marie Curie”.
After lunch we headed back along the rivers edge and over
the new bridge that has been built for the MTB trails, then uphill back to the
Priesthill Car Park and an end to a most enjoyable day out.
New bridge built for the mtb trails
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