A effort getting up the 400m steep track out of Saughie Rig farm after a big breakfast of bacon/eggs/haggis/black pudding and hash browns. But some of us made it.

A cool day getting wetter towards midday. Today we retraced our steps pastThirlwall castle at Greenhead to Gilsland before heading north-west to Gretna and the Scottish border.

This stretch had the longest bit between villages of the trip so far. We must have gone 20 kms without passing more than a few farmhouses before getting to the first village (pub closed (permanently?)) and the second (pub closed today but Belhaven ale signs in the yard, getting close to Scotland).

Forty odd dead moles hung on a fence outside Gilsland got us thinking that the local farmer definitely didn’t like moles digging up his grazing paddocks. And if the poison he used on the moles killed a few ravens eating the moles, what’s the problem? Supisition on my part of course.

By the time we got to Longtown it was after 1pm, getting colder and wet and we needed lunch. We joined seemingly the blue rinse ladies of the local old peoples home for a sandwich and coffee at a local garden centre.

Then it was on to Gretna and the Scottish border. Nice border marker so a few photos then on to Gretna Green and its famous blacksmiths and anvil, now a large tourist trap. A quick spin around the tourist site then over to Gretna town to find a supermarket to stock up for dinner. This was a bit harder than it looks because being north of the equator the sun is in the wrong place, being mid-summer the sun rises in the far north-east, is in the south at lunchtime and then heads north-west to set. On top of that British towns are seldom set out on a grid and instead have streets wandering around and meeting up at odd angles. Very hard to orient yourself to read the map. Anyway we finally found a supermarket and then headed off for the last 11 km to Kirtlebridge for our BnB. A whole house to ourselves, with conservatory so you could watch the drizzle in comfort if that was your thing.