an early rise saturday morning for a very big day out…around 60 miles approx as it turned out riding around 12 hours with 2 breaks…a bit too much really but when the cloudy weather cleared i just kept riding untill i reached lauder and returned on half of sundays ride to be camped by 9 pm back in east lothian…
on with the pics…
road ride to haddington then a short bit of trail to the site of famous scotish poet robert burns house and up by road to bolton…

then offroad to gifford on the lovely old right of way…one of my favourites when ridden the opposite way down from gifford…

then from gifford it was up through yester estate to danskine lodge and up to the crossroads…

the OS map shows a trail west of here off the minor road to garvald village…

but alongside the resovoir was a waist hieght nettle infested bike-a-hike…and i had 3/4 shorts on…ouch!

wiping my stung shins with dock leaves soaked in the cold resovoir water really did work…and eased the throbbing and i followed the twin track through cattle fields to ride through garvald village…

then a short roadride stopping for some jumpy race horses to deuchrie farm…nestled in below the rise of lothian edge and the lammermuir hills…

note the "no through road" on the sign…for motorists but also means "once a main thouroughfare" and it was once a joining link route to the famous Herring road from dunbar here in east lothian to lauder -a market town in the scottish borders…once salted herring packed in barrels were transported by pack horses via this route,also other traders and peddlers and drovers used the route…an estimated 20,000 people trampled this route every year-hard to believe today…i would meet only 2 walkers later on the southern upland way…
the ROW signs…and gun happy redneck locals?…thats been a steel ball 12 bore BB cartridge for wildfowl!…

past the farm a track leads east…before the "leauge of gentleman" house!…

gets a bit faint but leads uphill for a bit bike-a-hike…

you can see the climb here…

and leads to above halls farm and the proper start of the herring road…

great views north over the seaside town of dunbar and across to the bass rock and isle of may island`s… another hike-a-bike to the top and onto watch law…

here on the climb up you can see the grooves cut by pack horses over 200 years ago…

and ahead crystal rig windfarm…i love windfarms…


what wasnt very nice was discovering the old route of the herring road that took a grassed over hardcore road to beltondod farm has been by-passed and re-routed over soft grassy marshland-dry in this drought but garaunteed to be swamp in winter for around 4 miles!…it was ridable but quite hard going…

signs say this is temporary..hopefully once construction of the windfarm is finished we can once more ride the old route which is all still there…
id had enough of trampling through uncut grass and worse shredded branches which pinged up and hit your shins and took to the old pylon maintenance track down to the minor road south of johnscleuch farm at the old white foot bridge…

before the road a grassy track leads to the whiteadder resovoir on the east side of the whiteadder water avoiding the tarmac…


still on the route of the old herring road it was a grassy and stony twintrack past a lovely old stone and ruin to the border county line on a minor road near killpallet…

uphill again on the old herring road…again see the pack horse grooves…it was hike-a-bike halfway up…

after midday now i stopped for a break sheltering out of the strong north easterly tailwind in a grouse shooting butt, and boiled water for a cup-a-soup then a brew…could have slept here out the wind in the heat of the sun…

this is why i love the lammermuirs,like the cheviots there beauty is in there remoteness rather than there scenic granduer…apart from around the southern upland way long distance coast to coast footpath which crosses the hills from lauder in the south west to cockburnspath on the seaside eastern end of the hills you often meet no-one…and a day like today the sky here looks so big…
this is mountainbiking…

from the dye water the climb over scar law…look at about 2 o clock on the skyline you will see 2 cairns..thats where were heading for…

where we join the southern upland way (SUW)…

now climbing up to the twin law cairns on the SUW…



part of a poam to the cairns…erected in memory of two brothers killed in a battle near here who fought on opposing sides…

stunning views south over the merse of Berwickshire to the Cheviot hills…

and south west to the Eildon hills and behind the Tweed Valley…

then headed for lauder on a more or less steady 4 mile descent on stony twintrack and grassy ways…see the track centre of picture…

time for a tangfastic break before a short climb…

more of those big skys again…

and a flat out blast down this track…where i over shot the SUW turn off…

i had missed a nice short descent to braidshawrig but it didnt matter…nice to go somewhere new…and i knew where i was when i popped out at the roadside at blyth…
a mile west on the road and i rejoined the SUW at newbigging wells…and the nice but short descent into lauder…

i should have headed for somewhere to set up camp but it wa
s just too nice weather to stop so heading north out of lauder i discovered some of the old railwayline is now a path…

i was heading for an old road once alot more important than the present A68 road..once the M1 into scotland for the roman empire…
dere street…


this section is short but you do see the lines of the road…
i have written about dere street before when i crossed the cheviot hills riding one of the longest preserved sections of this 2000 year old throughfare…here again windfarm building has made it a bit of a nightmare to get onto the route of the road and so i just took to the hardcore tracks…

the route was used in later times by monks as it comes out beside soutra aisle hospice and sanctuary…

with stunning views north over edinburgh…

and east to east lothian…

now i was starting to feel a bit fumbly and tired…time to head to camp…down the road from soutra and heading for humbie village…
sun was dropping now…so was i…

shadow bivvy man…

just outside humbie this trail leads into woods…and an ideal bivvy spot for the hammock…

by the time i put up the hammock my pasta was ready on the trangia and after i scoffed it down i was in my hammock when i realised i was so tired and occupied with stuff i hadnt taken pictures of the camp..so i apologise for that as once fed just wanted to sleep…feeling shattered but happy at the days riding…i awoke at 5am sunday morning needing a wee and me being me once awake-im awake so packed up and was home on empty roads for a long hot bath just after 6am and then slept until 11am!,

bike packing set-up
film of views on vimeo
full story

looks superb, hats off

Very nice. I've been over the Lammermuirs once on a motorbike but never on a mountain bike.

Very nice … apart from the wind farms.

proper jealous

Nice stuff.
any chance of a copy of your route? I like riding around there and some bits I didn't know from the description

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Ta

Nice report. The Lammemuirs seem to be overlooked in favor of the Pentlands. Any route suggestions that involve a reasonable proportion of singletrack?

nice report and photos, looks like a great trip. Lammermuirs are lovely and dry underwheel just now.

quite similar to a Leith to Leaderfoot route I did last month.

I went up from Longyester to Lammer Law and over the other Herring Road (it seems nobody knows the exact route of it from the wee bit of research I did) and then joined on to the Southern Upland way just above Lauder. It is a great wee descent into the village although I agree it would be nice if it was a little longer.

I love the way the Lammermuirs manage to feel so remote despite being a fairly intensely managed environment. Even though there's not that much singletrack up there some of older landy tracks / quad tracks are great fun.

TJ, getting a garmin soon so once got it set up will be using that alot and can mail the route,be about 2-3 weeks,sooner if househusband and co fancy a trot over the hills 😮
epic steve, was it with tom (rae)? is so i may have met you years back,he had a friend steve he brought trailriding when i had my bike,
balfa, sadly not alot of continous singletrack on the lammy hills,mostly landy track,grassy twin track,but alot of nice descents on these with sea views,
descents (west to east);
windy law (nr tollishill) to stobshiel (landy track)
lammerlaw to longyester (landy track)
lammerlaw to hopes resovior (grassy quad track)
haresone hill, S.E is a new shooting track (not ridden yet) v steep!
nice loop from faseny cottage around meikle says law and back across little says law (landy track with a bit peat/heather between the 2 laws,
descents to stonypath and deuchrie off lothian edge (R.O.w.s) grassy twin track,
descent from watch law to halls,
there is some good sheep/cattle singletrack bits down off blackcastle hill with its transmitter mast,and a stunning view,
spending next 2 weeks summer hols at home and re-exploring the back yard so will post some more rides… 😮

Awesome.

epic steve, was it with tom (rae)? is so i may have met you years back,he had a friend steve he brought trailriding when i had my bike,

It was with Tom. I was on a trail ride you led from Jedburgh over the borders streets, with Tom and John Rushworth as well. Good few years back now though! I seem to recall you spend a fair bit of the ride with your front wheel off the ground…

lol…must have been 1998-99?, still the same on a bicycle 😮
tom said i will remmember you when i see you again!, john rushy up in crieff…,now theres a character!, bobbing about in a boat as a home now off the west coast somewhere this now!

I'd be guessing perhaps 1999/2000 and I'd have been on a CRM and Tom I think had a Moto Morini 350. I think there were quite a few of us but I can't remember who else would have been there – going senile I think!