Tranquil and Beautiful
My wife and I arrived with our dog Mollie on Thursday 2nd August 2012 after booking 30 minutes before setting off on our 2 hour journey. We were asked to give phone number, car reg number and CC number at the booking stage. On arrival we were greeted by the sight of a beautiful long and narrow lawned strip slightly sloping towards Ale Water, which is a stream about 150 Metres away. The site has a pleasant dog-friendly woodland walk on the grounds. After setting up and speaking to a friendly fellow caravanning couple who regularly frequent this CL we approached the house to pay the £50 for 5 nights. The lady of the house was tending the extensive and beautiful gardens and was friendly and welcoming. My wife and I always use CLs since the kids grew up and stopped coming with us. The main reason for this is that we love hiking and if we can do a 10 to 15 mile hike straight from the CL then all the better. Unfortunately this CLs only drawback for us was that there are no footpaths either from the site or anywhere near. Even the 1.5 mile walk to the pub in Ancrum had to be done along the road which is not a pleasant experience given the tight bends and norrow road. However, if you are prepared to drive out of the site many countryside walks can be found, the nearest of which are a number of colour coded walks around the grounds and surrounding countryside of Harestanes Visitors Centre. We had to combine most of them to make up the distance we required on the day we went but due to flash flooding of the Jed Water river the day before and the amount of rainfall that fell the previous night, the ground was very boggy. Another walk that we did was an 8.5 mile walk out from Kirk Yetholme (16 miles from the CL) onto the Cheviots and back. Returning to the site meant driving wheel deep along flooded roads due to the rains which flooded Jedburgh that same night although miraculously we stayed dry for the duration of the walk despite thunder and lightning in the distant skies. The morning after the flood I noticed what had been a picturesque waterfall in the garden of the CL had turned into a raging thunderous torrent and had swept the wooden arched bridge (that gave access to the garden from the house) had been washed onto it's side several metres away. The remainder of our stay saw the site saturated to such a degree that the owners put a sign at the entrance stating the site was closed due to being too wet although we were not asked to leave. On our last day we drove to Newtown St Boswells and walked over the hills to Melrose in conditions that varied from heavy rain to warm sunshine however the ground was also very muddy and boggy. In conclusion we enjoyed our stay but we do prefer CLs with nearby footpath access to the surrounding countryside.
