Not the Arch I was after!

This is all rather complicated, but bear with me and all will be revealed. I am on another quest, all to do with:

Andy Goldsworthy
Sheepfolds
Drove Roads
An Arch

But not this Arch!

We have spent the day in the borders of Scotland, in Dumfries and in the hills north of Dumfries. I was searching for the beginning of a trail that connects all those things listed. It took us to a remote valley and a farm, where we got imprisoned for a while, but we did find what I was looking for.

However - much the most dramatic picture of the day was this one. It had very little to do with the original quest, details of which will have to wait until another day - maybe tomorrow, but as we drove seven miles along a tortuous, mainly unmade road, with huge pot holes and ditches on both sides, to get to it, it won't be somewhere we will be returning to in a hurry. So this has to be blipped today. The rest will wait.

This is an Andy Goldsworthy Arch. He built three Striding Arches on hill tops around here. Apparently they are very impressive, but the way up to each one is 'challenging'. Not something we were going to tackle today. He did however, 'as a taster', build this one outside and inside an old byre. He liked 'the idea of the free-roaming arch, released from the quarry, unconfined by a building'. It was very strange to come across this and even stranger to go inside the byre and find the rest of the arch coming through the window. There's a fair amount of other things around the building, such as carvings reflecting the human history of the place, but for the moment I give you - A Striding Arch. Not the Arch I was looking for, but an Arch nevertheless.

And my was it hot today!!