Melrose to Edinburgh Day One

The day has finally arrived to start the first section of the Scottish National Trail although we are doing the second section first which is Melrose to Slateford (Edinburgh).  Melrose is a beautiful village, hidden in the hills in south east Scotland between Galashiels and St. Boswells.  Steeped in history it is the home of Sir Walter Scott's home (Abbotsford House) and the wonderful old abbey is the final resting place of Robert the Bruce's heart.  We arrive and leave Melrose on Thursday 28th February.  It's a cold, crisp morning but the sun is shining brightly and it's obviously going to be warm later on in the day.

You could spend the day in Melrose visiting historical venues however this is our starting point and we have a lot of walking to do so we leave Melrose, with the abbey on our right, heading towards the chain bridge over the river Tweed.  This is clearly marked as part of the Southern Upland Way.
The first leg starts off gently along the Tweed, meandering up to some steps up to a point that overlooks Skirmish Hill, the scene of a small battle which was overlooked by a 14 year old King James V.  A couple of miles later and you are approaching Galashiels.  I didn't have any need to go into Galashiels so rather than follow the Southern Upland Way around the north of the town we walked around the south and re-joined the path further on which saved a little bit of time. It's only after leaving Galashiels that we start to feel as though we're leaving civilisation behind for the first time. We made our way up Hog hill and pause for a while to have some lunch, next to a cairn which, strangely didn't seem to appear on the map. Following the way down to a car park at Yair we then moved into into some woods where we were shielded from the hot sunshine which hadn't let up all day.  The climb up to the three bretheren brings on a bit of a sweat and zaps the already tiring legs.

Past Minch Moor we begin to descend as the last of the daylight is closing.  We can see Traquiar down below where we intend to camp.  We finally come across the first people we've seen since leaving Galshiels earlier in the day.  A couple of young kids out walking their dogs.  I ask what is in Traquair and they simply say Traquair house but nothing else which makes me laugh.  As the light fails we pitch our tents in a field and get some food on the go with a brew.  The tents are up in minutes and the beds are ready, it's only about 7pm.  After eating we are both shattered so we tend to our slightly blistered feet and get our heads down for the night falling asleep almost instantly.  We would be up and away by about 6 the following day as it's a long leg ahead.