Earlston to Melrose – 20 July 2024
There is a long way between the drop-offs for these three routes as they begin their walks towards Melrose. Normally when we finish at Melrose most of the routes do some variation of walking along part of St Curthbert’s Way. However, this time, two routes are going further north past the turnoff to Melrose and are coming into Melrose via the Chain Link Suspension Bridge that crosses the River Tweed.
The first to start is the 11.5-mile route that begins the walk from the A68 road and heads east to pickup St Cuthbert’s Way which it stays on for most of the route. As the route climbs over the Eildon Hills it goes over the second highest of the three hills, Eildon Hill North and heads to the east of Melrose. After passing close to the Rhymer’s Stone it goes through a subway under the A6091 road and comes into Melrose past the Abbey.
After 3 miles north on the A68 the 9-mile route starts and takes a path along a dismantled railway towards the River Tweed. The route crosses the river by using an old road bridge and then heads north on a footpath just to the east of Leader Water which flows south into the River Tweed. The route follows this footpath all the way to Earlston then turns west over the A68 road and then turns southwest towards Melrose.
After another 3 miles along the A68, the 10-mile route starts from Earlston and heads north through a wood for nearly two miles before crossing the Leader Water and heading south keeping quite close to Leader Water as far as a bridge that leads east to Earlston. However, this route turns west and picks up the Southern Upland Way which it follows south to the finish.
We do not usually have very much difference in the distance between the drop-offs so it will be interesting this time to see if all the routes can finish close together.
With a long way between the drop-offs for each route, you will have plenty of time to decide which one to do, unless you are going with the 11.5-mile route. You can get in touch with us from our Contact Page, you can also download the walk descriptions below and the GPS routes here.
The image for this post was taken in March 2023 with one of the routes walking along beside the River Tweed towards Melrose.