If you come in the spring you will pass some lovely Shetland lambs on route, as you walk from the village, in the field next to the Green House. Our favourite one last year looked like it had a Mohawk, punk lambs!
This community woodland was created as a celebration for the millennium so is in it's early stages of development, there is a short circular walk with benches and a picnic table placed around it. It is planted with mixed species trees which are becoming well established but the central pond is sadly overgrown (we have heard tales allegedly involving some dynamite and a culvert but that could just be a yarn to entertain us gullible newcomers to the village). The Horticultural Society has started the process of seeking a grant to restore the pond and the community will be fund raising to get the rest of the money required. We look forward to watching this little woodland mature over the years.
From the community Woodland you can often see buzzards flying about. You also get excellent views across the hills and to Kirkhope Tower.
Kirhope Tower is presumed to have been built in the 16th century. As part of the so-called ‘Rough Wooing’ of the 1540s, the Armstrongs raided Kirkhope and burnt it, they are believed to have been in the pay of the English. The tower is then thought to have been rebuilt by Wat of Harden around 1578. It was acquired by the Buccleuchs in the early 18th C., and eventually abandoned in the 19th C., but was restored in 1996 as a private residence. We plan a future cache in the area of the tower with it’s full and colourful history.
A homemade micro cache with room for log and pencil, have squeezed in a few small swaps.
Well done firrwood-johnny FTF