L2L Day 57 Eskdalemuir to Moffat - 15 miles

We caught the 8:50 to Eskdalemuir again but this time with the plan to walk from there, over the top along the Romans and Rievers route to Moffat.

The journey only took 30 mins or so but in that time, Colin the driver pointed out the remains of pre-Viking settlements and stone circles, theories of the construction of the Pyramids and the re-routing of the Nile and told us about his time, serving with the Scottish Regiment in Berlin of his part in the incarceration of Rudolf Hess.

All that before we got off the bus at Samye Ling's.

As Colin drove off, heading for The Cossacks!, we heard strange sounds which we initially thought could have been chain saws emanating from behind the Temple. It was then we spotted a brightly coloured, slow moving procession coming towards us on a path through the trees.




I read afterwards that this was the opening 'invitation procession' of the Kagyu Monlam.




The Kagyu Monlam is an international prayer festival to  "chant aspirational prayers for world peace, the happiness of all sentient beings, and global well-being" What made it really special for us was that it was synchronised with the arrival of the 8:50, 120 bus from Langholm and we were there !!!

The procession of 50 or 60 monks in bright colours, playing a variety of instruments was followed by a much larger number of the public. I assume this was the reason that I couldn't get accommodation there when I tried to book a few months ago.


From the tarmac road, our route branched off  Westwards passing Garwald and for the next 7 miles gained altitude gradually - initially through boggy moorland up through mixed forestry.





The rain fell intermittently until, at about 575m we were in the cloud and visibility dropped to probably a few hundred metres. We celebrated reaching the top with a hand shake, a quick coffee from the flask and a nip of Johnny Walker.


Deer crossed our paths on two occasions but so swiftly and silently we weren't able to get a picture.
We heard Cuckoos almost constantly throughout the day.

From the high point near Loch Fell, the track dropped steeply into Garrogill with each of the hills gathering steeply around us. 



After the monks and the postman at Samye Ling's, we saw nobody all day.
On the track around Gateswaw Rig we briefly had our picnic. It got cold very quickly. 


After a few more miles, the undulating track dropped towards Wait Hill and after being surrounded by the near hills, we caught our first glimpse of Moffat


and the expanse of the the Southern Uplands and the dark purple Lowther Hills beyond. Stunning.

The route dropped quickly to a bridging point over Moffat Water and we celebrated our tired but safe arrival at The Famous Star Hotel with a well deserved pint of Belhaven Best.



With tomorrow being a rest day, for supper we ventured to the Spice India restaurant and satisfied our hunger with pakoras and naan. Delicious. 


Here's a link to my JustGiving page.....

https://www.justgiving.com/page/david-thomas-lewes2lewis?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL

Comments

  1. Jill and Neil22 May 2026 at 00:02

    ‘…..of his part in the incarceration of Rudolf Hess.’ How old was Colin? 😂.
    We haven’t heard a single cuckoo yet this year, either here or on the SDW. There seem to be lots more in Scotland.

    ReplyDelete

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