Melrose and Gattonside

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Ormiston Institute

One final short walk from our Christmas 2022 stay in the Scottish Borders! This one started in Melrose, went down the Tweed to Lowood Bridge, crossed the river and turned back along the other bank to Gattonside (almost immediately opposite Melrose), before crossing the river again on a suspension bridge – about 4 miles in all.

We parked by the Ormiston Institute, above, home to the town’s museum. Of interest is its clock and the building’s stone inscription.

John Meikle clock
Inscription

The wording on the clock reads:

John Meikle physician and surgeon died 19th January 1892. This clock is erected by grateful patients.

The stone inscription reads:

The Ormiston: erected by the Trustees of Charles Walter Ormiston, Eildon Grove, Melrose, who died on 14th January 1882, in accordance with the generous provision made by him in his settlement.

Two highly thought of men it seems! We continued through the town which has many other attractive buildings.

Ornate building
Catholic church

As does the village of Darnick which we soon passed through.

Smith Memorial Hall
Thistle Cottage

Then it was on to the Lowood Bridge and time to head back along the river on the other side.

Lowwod Bridge
Near Gattonside

Our walking book then directed us up a ‘rough track’ forming part of the Southern Upland Way. It doesn’t look as bad in the pictures as I remember it, but it seemed more like a running river to me!

Rough track or running river?
John

At the top we continued with good views of Melrose and the Eildon Hills until we reached Gattonside.

Melrose and Eildon Hills
Gattonside
Gattonside
War memorial

Gattonside Suspension Bridge dates from 1826 providing access to Melrose – there was also a ford further downstream for horse-drawn vehicles. At that time, no more than 8 people were allowed on the bridge at once and it was a statutory offence to make it swing!

Regulations
The bridge with view of Eildon Hills
River Tweed from the bridge
Dog walkers on bridge

From here it was a short walk back to our car, past the abbey and some contentedly munching horses.

I am so relieved to have finished writing about 2022 before the end of January 2024! My next retrospective posts will be about Amsterdam which we visited in March 2023, so I can say that I am now ‘only’ 10 months behind instead of a year. Coming soon(ish) …

Scotland, UK , , ,

49 Comments »

  2. I don’t think I’ve ever been across a suspension bridge which swings, all the ones I’ve encountered have been very solid – I’m feeling a bit cheated now 😀 There’s a modern bridge over the canal basin at Castlefield in Manchester, not a suspension one but it bounces a bit when anyone walks across it. Not the easiest of places to take photos from!

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  5. Hi Anabel – the swing bridge looks inspiring – must be lovely in slightly better warmer weather – when counting to 8 and no more: might be challenging: can you shout from one side to the other? Then one might want to linger … irritating the next group?! Do dogs count? Ah well – probably a good thing you’re now only 10 months behind! Always love the posts and stories … but now look forward to Amsterdam and those memories. Cheers Hilary

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  6. I love a good sturdy bridge and of course an interesting walk. Well done, on completing 2022 perhaps if you stop doing “stuff” it might be easier to catch up. Yeah, I know there’s always a joker in the pack 😉

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  7. I love that the suspension bridge had such stern rules – it looks a magnificent structure. Congratulations on reaching the end of your 2022 posts (I envy you!). Looking forward to reading about your adventures in Amsterdam 🙂

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  11. What a nice walk and love what the people did for these 2 men. I love the clock and that window looks a bit crooked in the picture. I’m not sure I could do that bridge but I’d try. I love that last picture

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  12. Weren’t you a teeny bit inclined to swing? What about John? I always accepted the Scot = Rebel stereotype so surely the locals were lining up for a swing? And what happens if you catch up. Do you write ahead to things as yet not done? Could be a whole new series

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    • I think John was more focused on taking pictures. There was a couple (who can just be seen at the end of the bridge if you enlarge the last shot) who took their time getting out of the way. Someone else enjoying the bridge while we wanted to, imagine the nerve! I doubt I will ever catch up, and if I do I still have some historic trips I want to document before senility sets in.

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  13. Hi, Anabel – Thank you for sharing another interesting adventure. That is such cool information about the Suspension Bridge. No fears of me ever trying to make an suspension bridge swing….I am way too much of a fraidy cat for that! 😀

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  15. Melrose is a lovely place, even for the Scottish Borders region. Used to park there for the Eildon Hills circular starting and ending through different sets of streets and lanes. Beautiful in summer with the hanging baskets filled with flowers.

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  17. You’d better hurry up with your Amsterdam post as we plan to return to the UK via Delft (long story …) and you don’t want my Dutch write-up to beat yours 😉

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  19. Catching up, she says laughingly…. I know we’ve been to Melrose, Anabel, but this doesn’t trigger any memories and I know we didn’t walk around there, probably just visited the Abbey. I was hoping this was one of your weekly updates. Is that happening this week?

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