Author Topic: Herring Road Lauder to Dunbar  (Read 9282 times)

mike knipe

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Herring Road Lauder to Dunbar
« on: 19:12:41, 23/01/08 »
Last year me and daughter#2 walked this 3 day route in the Scottish Borders from Lauder to Dunbar.
WE picked the trwo places for 2 reasons - Firstly, there's a campsite at Lauder, which is on the Southern Upland Way, and secondly, both places are easily accesible from Edinburgh, so its not necessary to leave a car anywhere - and go back for it at the end. Dunbar has the East Coast main line which will whisk you away, either North or South at short notice. It also has fish and chip shops and pubs, for celebratory purposes.
This, for us, was a training exercise for the TGO challenge which we completed about a month later.  The point about a training walk is not to do great distances but to get used to carrying a load for 3 or 4 days and to try out any new kit (pans in this case) - and, just, generally, shake out any problems - and have a nice walk.
The first day, we followed the SUW over the moors to Braidshawrig (where we coincidentally met anothe TGO challenger out on a training "do") and on to the summit of Twin Law. Just after Twin Law, we camped wild next to Watch Water - a windy night, but dry.
On day 2, we left the SUW and an even windier day  and headed North to Dye Water, over the moors to Whiteadder Reservoir and camped in a sheepfold  near Spartleton Edge.
Day 3 saw us crossing Dunbar Common (more wind!) , Lothian Edge and down to Spott and a bit of road walking to the fleshpots of Dunbar High Street.
You could extend the walk by starting at Melrose, but we only had enough time for this.
The route is signposted and waymarked as "The Herring Road" and is an ancient route. It crosses wild heather moorland but the walking is very easy and the gradients are gentle but escape would be a problem as there's no public transport,  and not much in the way of mobile phone signals - so, if bailing out, you'd likely have to walk! (Might as well walk to Dunbar in this case!)
The distances and height gains were:
day 1 11Miles, 1600 feet
day 2 8 Miles, 1100 feet
day 3 14 Miles, 1000 feet
« Last Edit: 14:54:46, 08/03/08 by mike knipe »
Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles

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muymalestado

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Re: Herring Road Lauder to Dunbar
« Reply #1 on: 21:57:59, 23/01/08 »
Nice. Thanks mk.  Looks like you got some sun and some grey weather.
I think this next one will be the top ...

 

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