Today we left Gretna and headed for Moffatt
Today we had no-one walking with us and Jon was helping with our transport logistics.
Our hotel in Gretna was actually still in England, even if only by about 10 metres. So as soon as we left and crossed the River Sark we were officially in Scotland. The Scots defeated the English at the Battle of Sark in October 1448 in a significant victory for the Scots, who had not defeated England since the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. The river has been made famous, partially by the Robert Burns’ poem, Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation. We passed from Gretna through Gretna Green, with all its tourist attractions and set out on our companion for the day – the B7076
As usual, cows were curious as to what two blokes in matching t-shirts were doing and the whole herd wandered over to have a look. The B7076 starts out as a very long straight stretch that seemed to take forever to cover. We passed Robgil Tower, on the banks of the river Kirtle, one of a number of towers built along the border as protection against incursions by the British. It was owned for centuries by Clan Irvine, but a report from 1834 indicates that it was owned by James Smail by that time.
Our journey then then took us through Ecclefechan, birthplace of Thomas Carlyle. Shortly after a helicopter spent a long time hovering above us – we did hope it was Jon dropping in with our lunch but suspect it was actually just a training flight.
By now we were bored with the B7076 – very rough surface, steep cambers that seemed to go on long after the bends, not too much to see and incessant noise from the nearby motorway and the forestry lorries than enjoy a turn of speed on the road. By the time our lunch stop came along we were quite jaded, however as usual, a 10 minute rest and some food was enough to re-invigorate for the remaining piece of the journey.
On the final stretch of the day we started to see some hills and evidence of the forestry process at work and then we arrived at our stopping point for the day (and start point tomorrow) – Kirkpatrick-Juxta. The church was named in the 15th century as Kirkpatrick-Juxta to distinguish it from four other churches of St Patrick in the See of Glasgow, namely Kirkpatrick-Irongray, Kirkpatrick-Durham, Kirkpatrick-Fleming and Kirkpatrick in Nithsdale. This Kirkpatrick was styled Juxta as being the nearest of the five to Glasgow, the seat of the Bishop.
Tomorrow we head for Abington
