Haggis Hunting For My Burns Night Supper.

Robbie Burns day 25th January is a celebration of his life & work as a poet, writing many fantastic poems my favourite has to be "Tam o' shanter".

Traditionally on Burns Night celebrating his birth a Burns supper is eaten which is a plate of Haggis, Neeps & Tatties.

A link to the formalities & traditions of Burns Night, too much for me to write into this blog so click link below.

Burns Supper.

Now a Haggis is a shy reclusive creature found in the Scottish hills & mountains amongst the heather,bracken, gorse & reed covered bogs, so my mission today was to cycle up into the hills to try & catch one for my Burns Supper.

They are notoriously hard creatures to find let alone catch !

 So my choice of bike today had to be my Scot-t with the tartan saddle which was an appropriate choice given the significance of the day, back pack packed with bike related tools & food I head for the hills.

A delicious Haggis cleaned, prepared, cooked & cut open to show it's delicious meaty centre.

After a few days of hard frosts & snow up in the hills today turned out to be fairly mild.

Passing through Woodhall farm the low winter sun managed to burst through the grey clouded sky for a few minutes illuminating the rusty beech leaves & ivy on the trees  I then spotted the crow eating salt from the grit bin something I've never seen before, I have seen cows eat salt from them before but not birds.

I thought I would stop at the oak wood for a while to see if I could see any Haggis feeding on the lichens on the tree bark but to no avail so I moved onwards & upwards.

I need to invest in one of these Haggis whistles it would certainly make things easier to find them.

The sheep making short work of eating turnips in the field as I will also do tonight with my Burns Supper as turnips 'neeps' are part of the dish alongside potatoes 'tatties' & of coarse Haggis.

Why can't cows be like horses ?

 They just look up at you then get back down to feeding.

What a difference a few days make as the ground here at Weatherly was covered in a blanket of snow & the road was treacherous with ice.

And the majestic Spartleton hill looking moody in the dull skies, a fine view of the hill ruined by wind turbines, pylons & a substation.

Onto a more traditional hard packed cart track which leads to the ruined croft of Boonslie.

The road was slightly boggy but was no problem to cycle over as just an inch or two under tyre is the stoney packed surface underneath.

Nearing Boonslie I was keeping an eye out for Haggis as this is prime Haggis country boggy & reeds galore but still no joy.

Taking shelter from the wind here for five minutes & stuffing my face with cereal bars I was thinking of how hard life must of been in the days when these wee crofts were dotted around the countryside there were no quad bikes & central heating in those days & I pictured in my head the family huddled around the small open fire in the harsh winter after a day out on the hills tending the livestock.

The Brunt Hill below a good vantage point for looking out to sea & over to the river Tyne estuary.

Metal monsters standing in line across the landscape.

Bike over the shoulders traipsing across the heather & boggy ground towards a grass land rover track I saw something up ahead, I froze, carefully laid down my bike & kept myself low to the ground & there it was poking out the bottom of the heather feeding on some moss or something, I couldn't believe it a male Haggis, unfortunately it got wind of me & scurried back into the heather. It was then the reality hit me, how on earth do I catch one, no net, no trap as soon as they smell danger they're gone ! 

Chuffed to bits that I managed to spot a Haggis I found the grassy Land Rover track & sped down the track towards the Halls farm stopping now & then to see if I could spot any more of the elusive creatures.

Although the track was boggy & kicking up some wet mud in my face, there were still patches of thick ice to be found in the deepest puddles.

Over by some rocks in the distance I thought I saw a rabbit moving around so stopping & keeping a low profile I couldn't believe my eyes as out from the rocks appeared another Haggis this time a female WOW !!!

She had no idea of my being there & was quite happy foraging around in the short grass close to the rocks, I'm pleased with the picture I took as it was a good distance away.

 So after watching for a while she soon went back into the rocks I'm guessing that she had a burrow within the rocks, with a grin from ear to ear I set off for the Halls.

Merging onto the Herring Road I stopped to see if it was third time lucky & spot another but sadly not to be.

Hartside, my kind of place away from civilisation.

A short downhill blast on tarmac until I reached the Halls farm, passing through the farm & back onto the rough farm tracks again. Even here the deepest puddles still had thick ice on them.

I love this old rail box van with it's woody head of hair.

Looking back up the hills where I'd just come from.

There must of been hundreds of rooks cawing & cackling up above me it was really quite noisy & my biggest concern was if they dropped their bombs on me I would of been covered !!

From the Halls farm tracks it was over a fence & through a grassy field into  the young birch wood section of Woodhall Dean reserve.

Brilliant tracks for bombing around.

And Woodhall Dean has it's fair share of old contorted oak trees.

Out of the reserve & a nice gentle pedal home chuffed to bits about seeing both a male & female Haggis to see just one is a once in a blue moon achievement but to see two was unbelievably lucky !

But sadly tonight there will be no Haggis for my Burns Supper :-/

But on my return home my wife had been shopping & bought a Haggis for our Burns Supper, she obviously had no faith in me catching one !

So there it is my Burns Night Supper of Haggis, neeps & tatties & it was delicious :-)

Thank you for popping by

 &

 Happy Robbie Burns Day.