Last night, we had a really good dinner at the Cressfield House hotel, the star of which was a scrumptious local delicacy: Ecclefechan tart. Breakfast is good too, complete with haggis.
There’s been a thunderstorm overnight, the ground’s wet and there is rain about, but it’s not falling as we set off. We start on the road, passing Knockhill House, where Patrick, one of Richard’s friends once stayed. Evidently, they make very expensive bellows there (£260 starting price if you’re interested). We soon take a bridge over the Water of Milk and reach the Annandale Way, which we will follow for most of the day.
A short while after starting along a track, we come across a romantic, ruined house. It is Milkbank House, built by William Ogle Bell-Irving in the Scottish baronial style and completed in 1901. The Bell-Irvings have owned the 1,000 acre Whitehill estate for around 800 years. Initially, there had been a Georgian house there, but William decided it wasn’t big enough so commissioned this extravagant house complete with a unique marble mosaic in the hall laid by Italian craftsmen. The marble steps were made especially shallow as William had polio. Sadly, he died in 1904 and no-one in the family wanted to live in the house and it was ‘deemed surplus to requirements’. In 1952, a later heir had an economy drive and decided too much money was being spent on the rates for the Milkbank, so he removed the roof and let nature take its course. The property is on the Scottish ‘at risk’ register, but it doesn’t look as if anything will save it.
The way then skirts round Lockerbie and past the Eskrigg nature reserve, but don’t spot any red squirrels. It has been dry all morning, despite a distant rumble of thunder but, by lunchtime, the rain is setting in. We pass through a gloomy conifer plantation and then on the Gallaberry Walk, through a Crown Estate. Most of the land for the rest of the day belongs to the crown.
It’s a long day today but, even with the rain, it’s easier going as the temperature is down and the Annandale Way is an interesting, intricate mix of road, field, track and forest. After lunch, we continue to follow the way across this terrain, finally coming to and crossing the river Annan itself. There’s more plantations and ultimately we leave the Annandale Way, to head towards Johnstonebridge. We pass through the village, under the M74 (again) and reach the Days Inn at the Annandale Water Services. It will be back to the Annandale Way tomorrow.
Total distance so far: 454 miles