Debatable Land

It promised to be a lovely day, so we set out to do a bit of exploring. Since we heard Graham Robb speak in Keswick and we both read his book on the Debatable Land, we have wanted to explore this area a bit. So that's what we did today. The land in question is an area on the border between England and Scotland, which once belonged to neither and became a lawless place where very few people lived. 

That we were in such an area is obvious when you see buildings like this - a Pele Tower built for defence around 1550 by Thomas Graham. The Grahams were one of the big Reiver families. This is at Kirkandrews-on-Esk, where there is also a church in the middle of nowhere, whose Baroque style interior is astonishing (see 1st extra). There is also a suspension footbridge across the River Esk, built in 1877 to replace an earlier ferry boat that took people across to the church.

And this was only the start of our adventure. We found another and most amazing  Pele Tower, we found Scot's Dyke which was built to mark the eventual border between the two countries and still does that. We followed a disused railway (of course), we found a statue of a giant, we even passed the house right on the Anglo-Scottish border where Graham Robb lives. And we found a nice place for lunch. Blue skies and sunshine all day. But it was a bit cold (2nd extra).