Broadmeadows to Minch Moor. Following the route up Old Broadmeadows Burn, along the Southern Upland way and descending Minch Moor Road via Yarrowford.
It seems such a long time since Lynne and I were able to get out together and do some long distance walking.
As with everybody else this year, all of our previous walking plans had been cancelled due to the global pandemic. Enough said about that.
At the end of August we were finally able to book a break in The Borders and return to our beloved Broadmeadows House for some much needed fresh Scottish air!
We arrived on Friday 28th August. Our first walk planned for the Saturday.
Broadmeadows To Minch Moor
The walk starts at this signpost above near the bottom of the drive way to Broadmeadows House.
Our overall route covered was about 14 miles.
We started walking just before 10am and were back just after 4pm ready for our well earned pizza dinner!
At the start of the walk the path goes upwards with Broadmeadows House out of site at the left hand side.
There were lots of rhododendron bushes. I read later that these were probably planted in the 19th century.
The woodland here is said to be part of the original Ettrick Forest. Not much is left now it having been felled for shipbuilding and sheep grazing.
The Broadmeadows Youth Hostel signpost we passed lets anybody know that it is now a closed Youth Hostel and currently a private house.
The now closed Youth Hosel was the first hostel opened by the Scottish Youth Hostels Association, in 1931.
Unfortunately its popularity dwindled through the years.
It only had a 13 per cent occupancy rate during the summer of 2011 when a review by the Association was carried out.
After being sold in 2013 an application was granted to change its purpose to a private dweling.
On the path we also passed by these ancient ruins.
I couldn’t find out anything about what these were.
They may have just been some old barns or a dovecote.
After passing the Youth Hostel we were able to get some great views over the fields to the left.
We were able to looking back south towards the summit of Newark Hill.
The grass and farmland around here were extremely lush and green due to the huge amount of rainfall Scotland had the previous week.
Further on we got some great views looking west over Moon Plantation.
The landscape is largely treeless nowadays due to the grazing of large sheep flocks.
Most of the woodlands left now are artificial plantations or Forestry Commission.
Again due to the recent rain there were plenty of toadstools about.
All of them poisonous and not to be touched.
This one above is a close up of a Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) toadstool
Eventually the path headed out of the trees and we took an immediate right turn along the wall to the next gate which led into field of long rush grass.
Fortunately although there were many puddles (hiking boots essential, no trainers!) there were also board walks to get over the most marshy parts.
Lynne (above) prone to slipping, took great care walking through these wet parts!
The field of long rush grass made an ideal hiding place for Grouse.
Indeed they all came running out of their hiding as we walked along the end of the field.
We were very careful not to disturb them but they seemed to want to run in all directions. Including right in front of us!
Leaving the rush grass field we turned left onto a vehicle track which we followed for a while.
We then went off this track where signposted for The Southern Upland Way.
Looking back and leaving the trees way behind us there were some well trodden trails as we climbed by the Old Broadmeadows Burn up onto The Southern Uplands Way.
A stile climbs over the wall at the top of the path to reach the Southern Upland Way path.
It’s not a hard climb to reach this stage.
Just more wet and slippy than anything else!
If you can also see this signpost after having got over the stile then you’re at the right place.
The signpost points back down the path we just came up to Yarrowford.
Yarrowford is the nearest village to Broadmeadows House.
So we took the path heading westwards following The Southern Upland Way to Minch Moor.
On our previous visit to Broadmeadows House we had taken the path eastwards to get to The Three Brethren.
The sky looked as if though we might get a few showers of rain.
Fortunately it didn’t rain at all until later on when we were heading back down. Even then it was only a few spots.
This part of The Southern Upland Way is known as Four Lords Lands.
From here there’s a bit up a climb upwards to get some height after the gate.
You can see the path as it begins to wind upwards following the tree line on the right.
We reached the Minch Moor sign post at just before 1pm.
Perfect timing as I always like to try and summit at that time!
It’s only a short 400m walk to the summit from here.
Although if you asked Lynne at this point she would tell you the distance felt like more than 400m!
Minch Moor Summit Video
We were the only people on the summit of Minch Moor at that moment.
We met a few people when we sat at a bench back down near the signpost for lunch on our descent.
Mostly throughout the whole days walk from Broadmeadows House to Minch Moor though it was mainly cyclists on their mountain bikes that passed us.
After Minch Moor summit we walked back, retracing our steps eastwards along The Southern Upland Way to the sign post pointing down to the “Cross Borders Drove Road”.
On our previous Broadmeadows House Weekend we had come up this road, known as Minch Moor Road.
That weekend had seen us walk the Yarrowford Circular via Brown Knowe and The Three Brethren. We had skipped Minch Moor so hence one of the reasons for wanting to complete that part this time!
Since our previous visit we noticed some Rowan Tree plantations on descending Minch Moor Road.
It was also at this time we had a few spots of rain.
But there wasn’t enough rain to stop us enjoying a seat further down just before we reached Yarrowford village.
After Yarrowford village we took the short route along the A708 main road back to Broadmeadows House.
It had been a great day out enjoying the circular route we followed from Broadmeadows to Minch Moor and then back down via the village.
A long time coming as just like everyone else we’d had to endure this years unprecedented lockdown.
Tommorrow we hope the weather would be just as good for our planned 14 mile circular from Broadmeadows to Philiphaugh to Newark.
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