The Borders 2023

Our annual pilgrimage to the UK is just 10 days away. The trip this year is very different from the past few - we are not visiting any islands, except for a plane change in Dublin, Ireland.

This trip focuses on The Borders - that area between Scotland and England which was fought over for five centuries as governments - monarchs, sheriffs, wardens - attempted to draw a line, drive a wedge, between and among clans and families, economies, religious choices. The Border remained fluid and wild and a place of reivers, mobsters, unruly denizens and unruled government officials. It was illegal to marry across The Border - wherever it lay in that decade, that century - to engage in commerce, to converse.

We will be visiting medieval cities, abbey ruins, castles, churches; weaving, textile and corn mills; rivers, viaducts, bridges, and hiking the Eildon Hills. Most of our trip is in Scotland; we will cross the current border into England and visit Bamburgh Castle, Berwick-Upon-Tweed and Flodden Field. Like last year, the rented car will carry us around the region, our trusty steed on this, another adventure. 

Our trip concludes with a couple of days in Edinburgh, wandering the Royal Mile, searching for the original walls of the original city, visiting history and art museums.