GC3FYWD Mosspaul Watershed (Traditional Cache) in Southern Scotland, United Kingdom created by Mnementh & Rustica

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Mnementh & Rustica: Closing account

GC3FYWD ▼

A cache by Mnementh & Rustica Message this owner

Hidden : 7/29/2012

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This cache marks the watershed and the border between Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

North of the cache is the Teviot Water and Tweed catchment and south is the Ewes Water and Esk catchment. The Tweed flows into the North Sea at Bewick-upon-Tweed and the Esk into the Irish Sea at the Solway Firth.

There has been a hotel here on and off for 250 years. This road was the main stagecoach road between Carlisle and Edinbrugh and a coaching inn here did a brisk trade for a time with stabling for 42 horses. William Wordsworth stopped here in 1803 on the way home from a Scottish tour and afterwards wrote to Sir Walter Scott "the whole of the Teviot and the pastoral steeps about Mosspaul pleased us exceedingly."

The opening of the Carlisle to Edinburgh railway led to the closure of the hotel in 1864 and it became a ruin. A few years later demand for a hotel here grew again with the popularity of cycling, and a company was formed to buy the land from the Duke of Buccleuch to build a new hotel. 2000 people attended the opening ceremony in July 1900, including over 500 cyclists.

In the opening toast it was said "the stream if human life was again traversing their valley in ever increasing volume, and while there had now been provided the means if rest and refreshment fir the passing traveller, he could nit help thinking, in gazing in their beautiful surroundings, that a better health resort fir the weary dweller in town or city could nit be found, and that there in the breezy and health-giving upland, far removed from the smoke and din if a city life, Mosspaul offered a quiet haven where fogged brain and listless body could nit fail to recuperate."

The Ancient Society of Mosstroopers organise an annual horse ride from Hawick.

Mosspaul is also known as a place particularly prone to snow, although a tale from February 1854 of a stagecoach journey shows that patience and whisky will usually get you through eventually. These days you can check conditions at the cache site from anywhere in the world thanks to the Traffic Scotland camera here. Often you'll find whatever weather you've been experiencing will change as you cross the watershed.

"Mosspaul, which is about equidistant from Hawick and Langholm, is grandly situated amidst 'the eternal silence of the hills' at the head of the pass to Ewesdale, and in the water-shed between the dales of Teviot and Ewes."

Prospectus for company to rebuild Mosspaul hotel

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Penfu naq Qnfu!

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)

This cache has been archived.

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Geocache Description:

"Mosspaul, which is about equidistant from Hawick and Langholm, is grandly situated amidst 'the eternal silence of the hills' at the head of the pass to Ewesdale, and in the water-shed between the dales of Teviot and Ewes."

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Mosspaul Watershed Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

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Geocache Description:

"Mosspaul, which is about equidistant from Hawick and Langholm, is grandly situated amidst 'the eternal silence of the hills' at the head of the pass to Ewesdale, and in the water-shed between the dales of Teviot and Ewes."

Attributes

Inventory

Bookmark Lists