Mid Week Borders Cycle - Duns and Edrom

I have meant to revisit Duns to connect up a short route into the longer run I did last November but have somehow never got around to it. The route is only 10m so I wasn't going to make a special visit just to do it on it's own but this evening there was a strong wind off the sea, so I thought I would head inland and have a look.

I'm so glad I did. There was the right mix of rolling Border's roads with old hedgerows and a plethora of wildlife. The sun was also shining although there were some ominous clouds building.

I headed east then south out of Duns to follow the Wedderburn Estate wall. The sun was on my back and I relaxed into an easy rhythm and watched the fields roll by. The lambs were bleating for their mums and the hedges were full of chaffinches and yellowhammers.

The gate in the above pic is at the rear of the estate and is resultingly low key! The road dropped down to the river Blackadder and the Mouth Bridge.

Looking down to the river I could smell the wild garlic.

 It looks like some fine trout fishing.

There was the usual short climb up from the river and the the road just rolled on, up and down, with new views opening up at every bend. I crossed the Blackadder again at Kelloe bridge where the cows came over to see what I was up to.

The next stop was a quick diversion to Edrom Church. The Church as we see it today is the result of a restoration in 1886 of an original building from 1732, but the Old Edrom Church that stood on the site was gifted by Gospatrick, Earl of Dunbar in 1130, and lasted until around 1732 when most of it was knocked down.
 

Fortunately someone had the foresight to save the arch of the original doorway and build it in to a burial vault.  A lot of the detail has been lost to weathering but it's not bad for nearly 900 years of Scottish rain. There must have been a few folks passed under it over the years on their way to Sunday services, heads bowed at funerals or full of hope at weddings.

From Edrom I started to race the oncoming clouds and didn't have much time for any pictures. It was a hard climb up the last mile or so to the main road and then a fast descent into Duns. The sky became very dark and the inevitable hail and rain crashed down. I nearly made it.

A braw wee evening cycle,... apart from getting soaked at the end.