Gretna Green and Borders District

Today, our destination is Gretna Green. We head off at a gentlemanly time of around 8am. First we head out of Edinburgh to show Dad where I work. This isn't as simple as we hoped, the road to my work was closed for roadworks, so the GPS took us on a tour through some narrow B roads to come in the other way.

We then carried on through Penicuik, stopping briefly to fill up with petrol. While there, I bought each of us a drink. I got Dad a Wee Bru to try. He likes it!

We headed on towards Peebles. Last time we did this was in a bus. It took forever, and we thought we were going so far. In the car, 15 minutes and we were there! We stopped to walk the main street and let Dad see the river. A relaxing start to the day.

Next we continued on towards Gretna Green. The drive took us through some nice A roads, and lovely scenery. We went through Moffat, another nice town which we stopped in briefly hoping to visit a bank, but it was closed.

Eventually we arrived in Gretna. Once there we followed our noses, and that led us to a large outlet mall. We stopped here and ended up all buying a few shirts, shoes plus other goodies. I asked a shop assistant if we were far from the border with England, she explained it was just up the road. We could leave the car parked here and walk to the border. An excellent plan!

We found the border easily, and took photos of it plus the road signs in either direction. Finally, Helen got to stand with one foot in England and one foot in Scotland. My workmates here in the UK think we're crazy, but us Kiwis thinks it's exciting because our own borders are out at sea.



We then returned to the car, and headed around the corner to Gretna Green itself. History aside, this is still a busy wedding destination, and even today there were weddings on, but it's also major tourist spot. This makes the whole thing seem so tacky, I feel perhaps worse then Las Vegas. The carpark was geared towards parking lots of tour coaches, and even more cars.

The place was full of souvenir shops. And of course being the first port of call over the border from England, is loaded with Scottish souvenirs, and of course bagpipers. Yet somehow it doesn't feel that Scottish after living in Edinburgh. Helen took a tour through the wedding museum, and eyes the anvils inside. Dad and I passed on that one. We then depart. An interesting place to visit but it all seemed a bit surreal.

We head home a different way, dialing up Edinburgh on the GPS and letting it find the way home. This takes us back on a more direct route. We firstly pass a number of signs, "Welcome to England" and "Welcome to Scotland" as the road we're on criss-crosses the border. Finally we're in Scotland for good. Yes, the novelty of borders has worn off now!

Our next destination is Langholm. As you may know, Helen and I are Lilliput Lane collectors. We visited the Lilliput Lane factory in Penrith last year. Lilliput Lane is now owned by Enesco. They also own Border Fine Arts, amongst others. They used to have a factory shop in Gretna Green, but this has now moved to Langholm. So we wanted to stop and have a look. As it turns out, the shop has products from all of the Enesco group. We made a couple of small purchases. Then at the counter we found out that the Lilliput Lane factory in Penrith has recently closed and has moved to Langholm. This new saddened us. It's the end of a generation. Yet another family business being ruthlessly taken over by a faceless corporation. We may have just purchased our last Lilliput. We wonder what has happened to those friendly people we met at the factory, and especially what of the red squirrels whose home was there? Because they were so well looked after by the staff.

Heading towards Edinburgh, we take a detour when we see a tourist sign to Hermitage Castle. This takes us on a back road that seems to go on forever, getting us further away from the beaten track at every turn. We find it eventually, and it's a lonely site for this beauty which is still in remarkable condition. And it's Dad's first castle ruin visit so very exciting!

The day is getting on, and we're getting hungry. We missed lunch completely and now we're looking for dinner. Unfortunately the towns are few and far between on this route. We eventually find a little pub/restaurant in Hawick, who treat us to a lovely meal and friendly service. By the time we leave, it's about 7pm.

We make a beeline for home in Edinburgh, stopping only in briefly in Galashiels to take a few photos of the pretty Bank Street Gardens.