Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 15 on 18/7/2004.

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Great Scott! It's the write way to cross the border

Sir Walter Scott Way is a 93 mile long footpath. Sue Kendrick was among the first to complete it. Here she reports on her amazing journey

The way was long, the wind was cold …”

The Lay of the Last Minstrel is one of Scott’s most famous Border poems and this line describes, with uncanny prescience, the Sir Walter Scott Way, a new long distance footpath stretching from Moffat in the Annandale Valley to Cockburnspath on the east coast.

The Way is, in fact, 93 miles long, and even on the warmest day, the chill wind blows on the bleak stretches of the Minch Muir and other upland expanses that form the path. However, on the other side of the coin, you’ll see some of the most stunning and varied countryside likely to be found anywhere in Scotland.

In early June, when we became the first to complete its length, this beauty was displayed to rare advantage. Long, mainly sunny days, painted the wide open spaces with great splashes of cloud shadow that lit the hills and glens with a dazzling, throat clutching, beauty.

Each step of the way we gazed over rich, rolling farmland stocked with Cheviot and black faced sheep and hardy black and red cattle with young at foot. Fields of barley rippled with silken languor under skies wider than cathedrals while upland pastures of dark grouse moors marched step for step alongside acres of forestry commission woodland.

Stunning as the scenery is, to walk the Way for the landscape alone would do Scott, the Borders and this footpath a grave injustice for the Sir Walter Scott Way is more than a pleasant walk in wonderful countryside.

Rather, it’s a literary journey that explores Sco.....

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By Sue Kendrick

Section : Scottish Journeys

Page number : 26