Aching in the Eildon Hills
Saint Cuthbert’s Way II: From Melrose to St. Boswells, Scotland
David and I hike out of Melrose at 11:00, after a morning spent touring the ruins of the abbey. It becomes immediately obvious that the planners of Saint Cuthbert’s Way, lacking a detailed itinerary of his journey, decided to indulge in a certain vindictive sadistic streak. The most startling of their sins is a tendency to send the trail switch-backing up the sides of every mountain between Melrose and Lindisfarne. The designers, presented with a choice between a leisurely stroll around the base of a hill and a path over a heather-clad peak, will invariably select the course that better stresses the cardiovascular system.
This nastiness is present from the earliest minutes on the trail. The smell of hot oil and deep-fried cod, wafting from the last fish and chip shops of Melrose, has barely cleared our nostrils before we are forced into an ascent of the Eildon Hills, a “gentle,” nearly 1,000 foot gain in altitude. Melrose and its abbey slowly drop away beneath us as we slog higher into the sub-alpine zone. Near the top, there stands a gap between the pair of peaks labeled “Mid Hill” and “North Hill.” The trail planners show they are not completely devoid of kindness by shooting us through the gap rather than sending us over the top of the taller of the two mountains.
