Autumn Gold in the Borders and the Photograph I Didn't Take

Keen to get out amongst the autumn colours? Perthshire is famous as big tree country, and Glen Affric is arguably the most scenic of Highland glens. Deeside and Speyside are gorgeous at this (and any) time of year and the Trossachs is known for its varied countryside. For somewhere new, I had a hankering to see the oaks of Chatelherault in Lanarkshire, or the Lady Mary Walk in Crieff, and of course here in Midlothian there is plenty autumn colour along the banks of the two river Esks. But for our day off last week we went south instead, to Peebles.

It's easy to underestimate the Borders. The Highlands are world-famous, Edinburgh too. The Borders are just the country you drive through to get to places further north. But two American women we bumped into as they came down Cademuir were raving about the landscape. And now that the Highlands are overrun by instagrammers, why not? 

Skye on Cademuir:

Peebles was once the hunting base of medieval Scottish kings who frequented the formerly vast Selkirk Forest, so it makes sense it might provide a good autumn walk or two. We decided to repeat a previous walk over the John Buchan Way, starting on the south bank of the Tweed and winding steeply upward past a leafy school playing field onto the open hillside of Cademuir. It's always windy up here in my experience, beyond the shelter of the town, and today was no different.

Manor Water:


From here we dropped down to the delightful Manor Water and along a private track towards the tiny renaissance castle of Barns Tower.

Barns Tower back in February:

And then the Tweed... the river flows deceptively calm, fast and deep, lined by an avenue of young oaks and alder, swans treading water. The path crosses a road bridge then invites you up onto an unusual skew bridge, built at a 45 degree angle to the river. This carried a railway in the old days. It can be crossed and a spooky 1km tunnel towards Peebles entered if you dare... we stuck to the riverside, and sooner than I remembered we were at the climax of the walk around Neidpath Castle, sun on dark waters, this bend in the river steeply crowded with gold as the beech, oak, and pine basked in pre-Storm Austen sunshine.   

Follow the Tweed further downstream to return to Peebles and you enter Hay Lodge Park, where the town's dog walkers and childrens play parks butt up alongside anglers fly-fishing in the river. Our own dog was desperate to jump into the water next to a fisherman, so I put the lead on her and dragged her away. 

But there was something about that fisherman that made me wish I had lingered.

For behind him, behind the flicking whip of the fly, behind the trees in the park, something was happening. Something that made me start an entire new blog, inspired by this moment. Do you want to hear what happened? I'll try my best:

A fisherman, thigh deep in the river Tweed on a beautiful October day. There’s a riffle of wind on the cold blue water and the sun picks out leaves on the trees in a million shivers of orange and yellow. But there’s rainclouds behind the trees, and a rainbow. And just by chance, the rainbow seems to end at the fisherman. It looks like he is fishing for the pot of gold.

This was the first post in The Photograph I Didn't Take, a blog about moments witnessed but not recorded. We'll see where it goes. Maybe medium.com isn't the right platform for this type of post. In the meantime, I'll leave you with one last photo from the day: