Featured Touring Scotland - August 2021

Last week @andypandy (Andy), @Schuey (Jas) and I completed a mini tour of the Boarders in Scotland. I met Jas who rode up from Sutton Coldfield to Knutsford services. We then rode up to Lancaster where we me Andy. After a light lunch we set of for Innerleithen, Scotland. We spent three nights is a lovely hotel and had time riding in the Boarders and Northumberland.

I have collected photos from Andy and Jas, so will over the coming days shares these.

 

So Andy was on his very fast red Yamaha, and Jas was on his blue Triumph T100, with me on my Royal Enfield Interceptor. All three bikes performed well during the tour, although I have to say that I had real concerns about taking the interceptor on tour. As it turned out the bike did all that I asked of it. Mind it required regular stops to rest my a@se, but that made for interesting conversations with Jas and Andy. Well to be honest mostly bollox ...... but that is what you get with bikers together

We travelled up the M6 and then onto the A7. We had an ice cream at Pelosi’s cafe in Langholm. We then headed on towards Selkirk and our final stop at the Traquair Arms hotel in Innerleithen. We remained dry until we got 10 miles from the hotel when the heavens opened and gave us a real good soaking. Thank god for modern motorcycling kit. We had a fantastic meal in the hotel restaurant a few beers and a night cap of JD’s honey. Thanks to Andy for bringing the bottle.

 

On the Tuesday we had a good breakfast before hitting the road for a trip in the Boarders and Northumberland. This took us along the side of St Mary’s Loch down to Moffat The road has to be one of the best biking roads I have had the pleasure to ride in a long time, it was great fun. We then looped down into Northumberland and onto Kielder Forest National Nature Reserve, before heading north again. Great roads and very little traffic to slow us down.

Back at the hotel we went out for a curry and a few beers and a JD’s supper closed out a fine day.

 

here are a few more pictures...

 

Ok onto the Wednesday where we had planned to head west over to Ayr. However the weather forecast was for really heavy rain and strong winds. We reviewed our options and decided to head off to the Scottish National Mining Museum, which was east and north of us in the hope we could avoid the bad weather.

We had checked the web site to ensure it was open, but when we arrived it was closed? After making enquiries it seems that covid-19 had beaten us, it was only open Thursday to Sunday’s during the pandemic. The web site had not been updated to provide this information.

Not to be beaten we headed north again for Dunbar and the beach for an ice cream. Along the way we came across the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune Airfield. We diverted to it and spent a really enjoyable afternoon viewing the displays. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. Two highlights stood out for me and that was Concord and Vulcan airplanes, mind these were among many other awesome aircraft, videos and stories of flight.

We stayed dry for the ride back to the hotel until again we were circa 10 miles from the hotel when we ran into the bad weather that was forecast earlier in the day. A bit damp, we arrived back at the hotel for diner and a few beers and yes another JD’s supper. Yet another fine day on tour.

 

and a few more pictures....

 

and a few more....

 

and finally.....










So this is our mini tour of the Boarders and Northumberland.

 

Yep been there and done that. Some fantastic roads and tremendous people.