The year 2025 was a bit chequered for me, walking wise. For the first time in my life I was facing a significant health challenge, and an April operation scuppered my usual Scotland week or so in May.
But I didn’t want to miss out on walking in that nation entirely, and eventually a window presented itself in October. Not a long one, mind; just three days. I mulled over possibilities with my Edinburgh-based friend Graham Smith, and we settled on (most of) the Cross Borders Drove Road, one of Scotland’s Great Trails.
The Road was established in 2005, and it recreates, as far as one can these days, part of the Drove Roads by which Highland cattle were exported to their extinction in the abbatoirs and of London and the English Midlands. The full route is 51 miles, from Little Vantage on the A70 SW of Glasgow to the important Borders town of Hawick.
For the likes of Graham and me, the full distance might have fitted in nicely to three full walking days, but as the start point has no public transport, we missed out the first six miles through the Pentland Hills. I intend to get back in 2026 to finish the job.
Waymarking has a bull image (right). It’s mostly good, though in one or two places – the descents from Broomlee Hill and the trail high point of Kirkhope Law both tricked us – it goes missing. There’s also no waymarking in the town of Peebles, and south of Selkirk, where the route is generally coincident with the Borders Abbeys Way, the latter takes precedence.
See how we walked (most of) the Cross Borders Drove Road
Towns and villages
West Linton clock tower
Going south, the first settlement is West Linton, described as “charming village of huge character”. We did little more than alight at the bus stop and walk south-east along the B7059, but it certainly seems an attractive place. That’s it then until the market town of Peebles, once a county town but one that, from our brief visit, still thrives.
The tiny village of Traquair was well-placed for our day two lunch stop but as it’s a mile south of the larger settlement of Innerleithen it could be used as a break point. Next comes Yarrowford, a village large enough to have its own recreation ground but not to warrant a shop or bus.
A little further along, Bowhill is not strictly a village but rather an estate: the grand house of that name and some nearby cottages. Four miles off route from here lies Selkirk, like Peebles a former county town but one which, again on our limited experience, is somewhat less flourishing; we used a local taxi to get us into the town and back for our overnight stop.
The terminus of the trail is at Hawick. It’s roughly as big as Peebles and Selkirk put together, so a wise choice to end the route (unlike that which starts it).
Transport
Though it’s on the A70 road out of Edinburgh, Little Vantage has no bus service. It has a car park for those who wish to stroll round the Harperrig Reservoir. If you can’t manage a drop off, your choice is either a five mile walk along the A70 from Balerno – no pavement, fast traffic, dice with death – or three miles on a quieter road from the rail station at Kirknewton.
West Linton has buses from Edinburgh, Moffat and Dumfries. Though the rail network has long receded from Peebles, Selkirk, Innerleithen and Hawick, they all have decent bus services, especially on routes to Edinburgh and Galashiels – rail services to the latter recommenced in 2015. There is a reasonable service from Hawick to Carlisle as well, and a few buses a day link West Linton and Peebles.
Accommodation
There are pubs with rooms in the three towns and in West Linton (Gordon Arms) as well. We used the relatively plush Tontine Hotel in Peebles (shown right; ball gowns were in evidence the night we were there) and the rather less-so County Hotel in Selkirk. As ever, check on local B&Bs or Airbnb for alternatives. The estate at Broomhill has self-catering cottages, but not for single-night stays.
And, this being Scotland, responsible wild camping is legal, with certain exceptions. On our schedule, a Bowhill wild camp would have been perfectly placed, but fallen foul of those exceptions; something above Yarrowford could have worked out well.