A BAW Bash

On a few of our recent mini-adventures (Southern Upland Way, St Cuthberts Way, Justice Trail) we have met the Borders Abbeys Way (BAW) walking route. We even followed a section of this route partway between Melrose and Selkirk on one ride and this piqued our interest. So here we are, in Selkirk, to see if the route is a “goer” on our bikes.

As with many of these long distance trails we have enjoyed, we will ride it as out and back sections. We parked up in the centre of Selkirk with todays ride taking us over to Hawick and back, but first, we headed East for a few km’s on back roads to meet the “end point” of our previous ‘tester’ ride on Lindean Moor. The section of the BAW back to Selkirk was a little gem following singletrack paths through the Selkirk Hills.

Back into Selkirk and todays ride started proper as we headed out through the grounds of The Haining and this intriguing wall in a field (apparently a Dovecote – remains of)…

As we crossed rolling farmland we soon realised this was definitely a walkers route but nothing we could not handle…

Farmland turned into Sitka Spruce as we climbed on to Woll Rigg after joing forces with the Cross Borders Drove Road (another future route idea) and a little ‘incident’. A large fox ran in front of my bike, I stopped, Jill didn’t and rear-ended me. A little manipulation on one bent rotor and off we went again. Our next sighting was best described as “maybe one for the Stone enthusiast rather than the general public”…

Route followed the Thief Road smack through the middle of Woll Golf Course – although none of the golferists seem to mind our incursion.
Some really nice trails took us across Askirk Hill but the mist decended – waving goodbye to views and the Cross Borders Drove Road we plunged down into Hawick.

We returned to Selkirk via a different route, initially following the old Waverley railway line then minor roads and tracks until we were back at The Haining and the waiting van and ice cream. The route was fine on the bikes – a few stiles but nothing mental. Looking foward to the next leg once we can get back over this way.

Have always thought about doing route on a bike so will watch with interest on your next update. Cheers