Chapelknowe

Once up the slope we followed the winding road through acres and acres of pasture land. Cattle and some sheep were in every field and as we approached they would stop their grazing and watch us as we made our way past countless farmhouses and barns. Eventually we reached the hamlet of Chapelknowe, we had walked about fourteen miles and reached out target for the day.

Next morning is was sunny with beautiful blue skies and fluffy white clouds sailing along on a fresh breeze. We were In Scotland now. The border was crossed yesterday somewhere between Longtown and Chapelknowe but was not marked in any way.

We were climbing gently once more as we made our way to Kennedy's Crossroads along a very narrow country lane. We had to take care with the navigation as there are quite a few little lanes crossing about. we got some useful guidance from an old couple In a Rover when they saw us studying the map.

As we strolled along I saw an old Collie in the distance trudging up the road with his nose to the ground, when he got wind of us he stopped rock still for all of thirty seconds. He was not used to folk walking In these parts. In this three day stretch between Lambley and Padockhole we never saw any other walkers. After a while he came on cautiously and went on his way.

Being a warm day we were glad of a long rest and a drink by an old ruin before we strolled down to the farm that on an earlier recognisance had revealed some very aggressive geese. I took the precaution of making myself a long staff before we approached the farmhouse. The geese were nowhere to be seen I'm pleased to say.

From the side of the road we noticed a lovely little green path leading through a black Iron fence to a Private graveyard, all the tombstones that we could see bore the name of Bell. Just up the hill behind was a large house probably the home of the Bell family at a guess. It was a very tempting little dell for a rest and we spent half an hour or so before pressing on through the hamlet of Debate and on along the road to PaddocK Hole

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