The English-Scottish Border

My wife and I were scheduled recently to enjoy a weeklong guided tour of northern Scotland but we didn't want to endure about 15 hours in airplanes and airports each way and pay more than $1,300 each in roundtrip airfare to/from Glasgow for just a week so we decided to look around for an additional week '˜on our own', south of Glasgow. Knowing we would restrict ourselves to using trains and buses, a quick look at a map and online research into Scottish tourist offices and train and bus routes resulted in our planning stays in Dumfries, about 60 miles south of Glasgow, and Carlisle, about 20 miles further southeast and just across the border into northern England.

Dumfries rests on the Nith River and was the home of Robert Burns, Scotland's early 19th Century poet laureate. It is also only 12 miles southwest of Lockerbie, the site of the tragic airline terrorist bombing in December 1988 and hallowed ground I knew we would have to visit. Carlisle has suffered terribly over the centuries in its location on the border between England and Scotland. Battlefield victories or losses or sometimes secret agreements between ruling elites made it, alternatively, either the 'northernmost English city' or the 'southernmost Scottish city'! Among the earliest settlers in Carlisle were Roman soldiers who pushed the Roman Empire to its limits in northwestern Europe. It was from present day Carlisle that Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a defense wall completely across the English islands to protect Roman lands from the savages to the north -- . those we call Scots today!

We arrived in Dumfries after an overnight transAtlantic flight into Glasgow, 20 minutes bus ride into Glasgow's center, and 1 ½ hours train ride from the Glasgow Central station., using remarkably inexpensive rail tickets I obtained through RailEurope prior to our departing the U.S. Round trip Glasgow-Dumfries tickets with open travel dates at the equivalent of $10 each! The train ride was the first reminder Scottish accents might be a problem for us. I listened as a mother spoke to her child and realized I understood only about one word in five. It was only when the mother began to sing 'Old McDonald Had a Farm' to her child did I understand everything! We had arranged our Dumfries and Carlisle lodging through our German travel agent, Mr. Hubertus Rank of the Reise-Profi Agency, and were very pleased to know our Best Western Station hotel was only 50 feet across the Dumfries rail station's parking lot. That was a fantastic relief after a long two days and a night getting to Dumfries!

After the next morning's hearty buffet breakfast including my first haggis and blood pudding, we decided to visit Lockerbie, boarding a bus near our hotel for the short ride and paying the bus driver for roundtrip tickets. As we neared the town center, I was surprised when we drove over the major high speed highway from southern England to Glasgow and Edinburgh. More in a bit about that. We got off the bus in the center of the small bustling town, like any other it seemed, and quickly found an information office in the town hall only steps away. Surprisingly, a town official who was issuing various city licenses recognized us as tourists, excused himself from his duties, escorted us up stairs to the town's 'grand room', unlocked the door, and ushered us in. We realized the room doubled as a Lockerbie Disaster memorial with a beautiful stained glass window dedicated to those who died in the tragedy and commemorative plaques and memories from around the world, including commemorations of visits by Prince Charles and Pres. Clinton.

Another major memorial to the disaster is in the town's cemetery about ¾ mile southwest of the town center. A small information center there describes that horrible terrorist act, including a book with a biographical page on each person who died. Also, a somber, large stone monument is found at the back of the cemetery with the engraved names of those who died. The center had a map of the town depicting where major parts of the aircraft landed, killing 11 people on the ground. There are photos taken the day after the disaster by a young man from his second floor bedroom overlooking the homes of neighbors who died. Just beyond several completely leveled homes is the major highway on which several automobiles were struck by falling debris. There were also photos of the same small area taken 5 and 10 years after the tragedy showing how the neighborhood had been rebuilt. I noted the information center material did not mention the person sentenced to life imprisonment for the terrorist act had been released from a Scottish prison a year earlier on compassionate grounds because he was near death and that he was still alive. The Scottish decision was being roundly criticized in the U.S. and by some Britons while we were in Scotland. On a much lighter note, I was disappointed to learn the Lockerbie Creamery we noted on the Dumfries-Lockerbie road did not offer ice cream tasting tours because I would have felt obligated to test Scottish ice cream!

The next day we were determined to scour Dumfries so that we would know it like the backs of our hands -- . and I think we did a pretty good job. We enjoyed the Robert Burns Center located in the town's 18th Century watermill on the west bank of the River Nith which soon opens into the Firth of Solway and, beyond, into the Irish Sea. The Center traces Burns' life as a tax collector, suspect supporter of 'republican' ideas in the French Revolution, raconteur to whom women were greatly attracted, and poet and writer of ballads and songs about his beloved Scotland. Robert Burns' tiny home is on a quiet street only a couple of blocks from the Nith and Dumfries' center and his study contains the famous Kilmarnock and Edinburgh editions of his work and other original manuscripts. We also visited the poet's mausoleum in the city's St. Michael's Churchyard. He was a poet of great renown but, in my mind, he'll always be most remembered for writing the universal Auld Lang Syne.

The nearby Old Bridge House Museum is at the base of the 15th Century Devorgilla bridge over the Nith. Built in 1660, the house was originally occupied by the '˜bridge manager' and was a residence until the 1950s! Its contents are the everyday items of living over several centuries without the labor saving devices we think today we cannot live without! As we wandered about Dumfries' streets, we encountered the Moat Brae estate adjacent to Dumfries Academy, a boarding school. We had never heard of this estate which is under renovation but were pleased to learn it is credited as the birthplace of 'Peter Pan'. J.M. Barrie played '˜pirates' in the estate as a young teen when he was a student in the Academy and before he wrote 'Peter Pan'. As we further explored Dumfries, we discovered bright green pastures filled with grazing cattle and sheep surprisingly near the town's center, not uncommon we were to learn.

We were returning to our hotel on a Saturday afternoon and stumbled upon the end of a wedding in St. John's Scottish Episcopal Church so we perched for a few minutes on a nearby stone wall to watch. The women in the wedding party were dressed exactly as American women would be but the men were dressed in waist length black military tunics and kilts, even two little boys of about eight years of age. The kilts were primarily of one clan but one two wore a different plaid. We found out later few men own the full Scottish clothing -- .. I saw pretty expensive options in a few stores -- . but, rather, rent the clothing when they must. I was surprised the long 'stretch' limousine awaiting the wedding party was a Lincoln!

As is our custom, we visited a major local supermarket in Dumfries, in this case one entirely unknown to us, Morrisons, but which we would see many later. One can certainly learn a lot just 'watching' people about their normal shopping, observing what is available to them and what they buy. Not to be overlooked, of course, are the products on the shelves -- . chocolate and beer come to mind.

Our Sunday afternoon train ride to Carlisle was only 33 minutes but we crossed from Scotland to England, not a national border but one which still divides two parts of Great Britain with different '˜memories' of the same past. Different interpretations of hundreds of years of disputes over religion, land, taxes, and the rights of kings and nobles. The tension may seem trivial to non-British but it exists, most often seen in biting humor, particularly directed by the Scots against the English who, of course, ceded their sovereignty to the English crown more than 300 years ago. Demonstrating the currency of the idea of 'Scotland', however, the British central government recently 'devolved' important powers to the Scottish Parliament, keeping responsibility for foreign policy and national security in Westminister.

We found it remarkably easy to visit Carlisle's most important sites on foot. Founded as a military post by the Romans in 78 AD, current Carlisle is now the largest city in county Cumberland, England's most northern area. The Carlisle Castle is a fortress begun in 1092 and overlooks the city from the south side of the River Eden. The ultimately doomed Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in the castle for a few months in 1568. The headquarters of the active duty Duke of Lancaster Regiment of the British Army has been located in a part of the Castle since 1873. The regiment's soldiers were in Afghanistan as we strolled near their headquarters. The Castle is also home to the Border and King's Own Royal Border Regimental Museum which depicts 300 years of service to the Crown. What an attraction for the military buff and I could have remained most of the day!

Using a pedestrian tunnel under a busy city street, we walked toward Carlisle's center and into the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery. The museum hosts many of the archeological finds around Carlisle, from periods even before the Romans arrived, and is home in the course of a year to many revolving art shows. Carlisle's Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity -- .. the Carlisle Cathedral -- . is only a block south of the museum. The Cathedral was founded in 1122 and suffered from centuries of religious conflict along the border. The blue tile ceiling was fantastic! Its Treasury was opened in 1990 and holds treasures which describe the history of Christianity in Cumbria since Roman times. Opposite the cathedral's main entrance is the Fratry, a monastic building which dates from the 13th Century and was reconstructed in the 15th Century. The Fratry's basement is the Prior's Kitchen Fair Trade Restaurant which focuses on regionally produced food and drink. Lots of clanking dishes and animated conversation when we peeked in. We concluded our day in Carlisle with a stroll along the pedestrian shopping and entertainment streets of English and Scotch Streets.

After spending our day in Carlisle on foot, we were fortunate a friend from Belgium joined us the next day with his car, allowing us to roam into the countryside with a lot of flexibility for two full days. As we admired his ability to drive on narrow, left side drive roads in his right side drive car, we drove the first of those days east from Carlisle along the current trace of Hadrian's Wall. Our first stop, though, was the stark ruins of the 13th Century Augustinian Lanercost Priory in Brampton. In an example of the ancient conflict between the Scots and English, the famous -- . or infamous bandit, if you're English -- . '˜Brave Heart' Scottish rebel William Wallace attacked the Priory in 1297 as he terrorized the English in the border area. An English poet of the time quoted in the Priory's little history exhibit stated Wallace's brutal execution -- . drawn and quartered -- . still did not equal the enormity of his crimes. The Priory was seized in the Protestant Reformation as a gift to a protégé of the newly Protestant King Henry VIII and its clerics driven away.

As we drove further eastward, we joined bikers and hikers and those in cars and buses along the rolling hills in stopping at key sites along the Hadrian's Wall. Imagine -- .. although the wall was often used over almost 2,000 years as an easy source of construction rocks for buildings grand and rude, several parts of Rome's most important legacy in current day Great Britain still exist. Four very descriptive examples in the English Heritage association are Housesteads Roman Fort, Chesters Roman Fort, Corbridge Roman Town, and Birdoswald Roman Fort. Others are the Roman Vindolanda Site and Museum near Bardon Mill and the Roman Army Museum near the Walltown Crags, steep, natural cliffs which served as part of the Wall's barrier There were beautiful bonus views of working farms and pastures from the top of the Crags, too. Each of the Wall's sites is a remarkable example of Roman engineering and efficiency, their exhibits helping visitors understand the lives of the soldiers who built the wall and manned its posts to guard against the unpredictable '˜Picts', so called because they chose to strip naked and brightly paint their bodies before battle! We were fortunate to visit the Wall in fantastic, sunny weather but I almost wanted a dark, rainy day to imagine a Roman legionnaire's silent, singular suffering as he patrolled his post. What duty!

Our easternmost reach on the day was lunch in Hexham, a busy big '˜town' which grew over the centuries around Hexham Abbey, founded in the 7th Century first using stones '˜liberated' from Hadrian's Wall! The Abbey clearly remains the center of the town's action as we found in strolling around young people as they played soccer in the gardens on one side of the Abbey and local farmers offering their products in a farmers market on the other side in the city center.

The next day we drove west from Carlisle to the coast of the Irish Sea, stopping for a walk along a windy beach in Maryport before going back to our car on a street of B&Bs and vacation rental cottages. Driving further along the coast, we were impressed by the wind turbines taking advantage of the persistent and high winds. We turned inland and stopped in lovely Cockermouth on the River Cocker for a stroll and lunch. William Wordsworth lived in the town in the mid18th Century until he was nine years of age and had to move to other family when his mother died. We noticed a lot of storefronts under renovation along the main street but thought nothing of it until we discovered a plaque on a wall marking the remarkably high water level in the flood of November 2009, more than head high! We were then very much impressed with how the town had obviously bounced back. Lunch? As was our usual custom, a great meal in a local pub with local dishes and wine and beer, listening as we could to the banter of locals' dining and drinking at the bar.

As we returned to Carlisle, we took a bit of a circuitous route through the Lake District National Park of beautiful lakes, farmhouses and pasture, B&Bs on country roads, and expensive homes behind stone walls. We couldn't resist stopping for several 'Kodak moments'. The next morning our friend returned us to Dumfries and we gave him a quick tour of '˜our' town before he left for a tour of Lockerbie and onward to visit family near Newcastle and we boarded a train to Glasgow and the beginning of our tour. That's another story!

Southwestern Scotland was a joy -- -- friendly, proud people whose English we mostly understood, beautiful scenery, and thousands of years of history. Did I mention the food and beer?