The Lambs of the Lammermuirs.

A wee bit late in posting this blog as I done it mid week.
It's early in the lambing season & I like to see the wee lambs bouncing about care free in the fields, so I thought I would venture up into the northern edge of the Lammermuir foothills to see if I could see any on a nice warm spring day.
Lammermuir literally mean Lambs moor...

Leaving Innerwick behind it's a more or less non stop slog up hill passing by Elmscleugh hill farm where I thought I would see some wee lambs but alas none were to be seen just now, so onwards & upwards on a lung burning climb to the top where the hills level out a bit.

It was a real stotter of a day warm, no wind nice & sunny with a real spring smell in the air.

After passing over a cattle grid I spotted a farmers quad bike track heading off road, knowing which way the track was heading I followed it for a while.

And a real hard pedal it was too as the ground was very boggy & saturated so the tyres were sinking almost up to the rims at some places but the tyres still had good traction. 
No one ever said hard work was easy !

Coming across an old sheep carcass which had been picked clean by scavenging corvids & birds of prey.

Finally an easier ride down the boggy grass slopes towards the pylon & wind farm road of Crystall Rig.

Now onto the hard packed road I made for an old road to take me in the direction of Deuchrie.

Coming to a crossroads with choices for the Herring road to Lauder & Dunbar or a road to the border town of Duns, but for me it was north towards Deuchrie.

Again it was a battle cycling on the spongy track & making slow progress but slow & steady wins the race & I was in no hurry.
 Very quiet as it was up here & the only thing that I could hear was the sound of Skylarks with their raspy sounding song above & around me.

I would love to know more about these old stone markers dotted around the hills but despite searching on-line I can't find anything written about them, I'm guessing they are like an old days sign post :-/ This one has a number 7 carved onto the west facing side & you can make out by the terrain that there are traces of old roads heading north, south, east & west.

Leaving the grounds of the wind farm over what's called Dunbar Common a sort of flattish plateau & the ground wasn't letting up on bog factor which after the tiring climb up here was taking it's toll on the legs.

Another of these old marker stones, this on has a benchmark carved onto it & just to the left of the slot near the top of the stone there was another carving which looked more like lettering rather than numbers.

Nearing the end of Dunbar Common before I drop over the edge I caught sight of my local town Dunbar to the north east, so this was as good a place as any to stop & admire the stunning views over the lowlands while stuffing my face with cereal bars & get my new toy out for a wee shotty :-)

And here it is my new bloging toy a selfie stick !
A few of my work mates & friends like to take the p**s about me taking selfie photos, but as I like to ride alone I like taking the odd selfie picture for when I'm old sitting in my rocking chair puffing on my pipe I can look back on the day when I was fit & able to ride out in the rough stuff ! 
But I think I need to work on that belly or that day will come sooner that I would like !!!

Fed & watered it was the best downhill part of the day a fast ride down to Deuchrie farm below with Traprain Law sticking out like a sore thumb in the distance.

Passing a restored sheepfold & looking east along the valley where the trees of Deuchrie wood & Rammer wood on opposite hills & the derelict cottage of Lucknow sitting abandoned on the hills edge.

And finally just past Deuchrie farm I spotted my first wee lambs of the year, bleating away & suckling milk from their mothers it was a nice sight to see & a sure sign that spring is upon us once more.

Much as cow's are my sworn enemy when I'm invading their fields, it was nice to see them again out in the sunshine !

A bit of road work on the way home now passing through the quiet little village of Stenton.

But a wee detour around the Brock woods en route home.
 A family favourite walk for us as it's not too long for the kids to walk & normally plenty of wildlife to be seen & heard.
 A great little track for a blast around on the bike, but I'm always cautious on my speed around the pathway as I once was going that fast & was too busy looking out where I was going that I never saw a low branch & punctured my eyeball which was a very uncomfortable ride home blinded in one eye with a bit of stick still lodged in the white of my eye.

On the lower half of the walk is the remains of an old waterworks which at one time supplied Dunbar with drinking water until the dam was breached during a storm.

And an old picture of the pond as it was then.

I love old dams & waterworks, the attention to detail is amazing & the craftsmanship of the stone masonry is almost a lost tradition now that we live in a world of concrete.
There is so much here to see but it's almost now hidden & being broken apart with the encroaching vegetation as mother nature is slowly reclaiming the land back.

Over the ford of the Brock Burn & now heading towards Spott.

Through the village of Spott & yet another killer climb up starvation brae & the big long downhill in the picture once at the top of starvation brae is a deceiving hill as there is a climb up the other end which seems to be longer that the hill is downward !

But for me I would turn off along a farm track of Spott farm & a preferable off road climb up to the summit of Brunt Hill where I have a geocache hidden & I haven't checked it's condition for a while so I wanted to see if all was well.
 Finding my geocache in good condition which I named it 'Moontan bikers view' it was another drink stop admiring the views in front of me before the final leg back home.

After the sweat & toil of all the big hills that I endured today it was a nice downward mostly free wheeling run down to the Brunt where there were loads of gorse bushes in flower giving off a strong marzipan smelling scent when the warm sun shone on them. With only the one hill left to climb back up the other side out of the Brunt I was looking forward to the last wee bit of the journey home with a big feel good factor of my day out on the bike & thinking that I'm so lucky to live in the countryside in this beautiful part of Scotland.

Thanks for popping by & I hope you enjoyed the ride.