It's the second day on St Cuthbert's Way for the Guardian Northerner's intrepid pedestrian Alan Sykes and the trail loses sight of the sun. But at least the water's free...Sadly yesterday's glorious dappled sunshine did not repeat itself this morning. Leaving Jedburgh by the Border Abbeys Way, the track rejoined St Cuthbert's Way on Vere Street before going through many boggy woodland paths. These no doubt are a delight on a sunny day, but less so when the rain is sheeting down. At least I was able to refill my water bottle (for free) from a busy little beck in one of the woods. The path through the woods was surprisingly overgrown, suggesting that relatively few people have used it in recent weeks.A short stretch of open country takes you past the stark ruins of Cessford Castle. Thomas Howard, later Duke of Norfolk and previously a commander of the English forces at Flodden Field, apparently described it as "the third strongest castle in Scotland", adding, when he was besieging it in 1523, that the outer barbican had been vawmewred with earth of the best sort I have ever seen the earth piled up against the barbican meaning that his 11 cannon were largely ineffective in their bombardment.At Morebattle it was raining so hard, and there were occasional flashes of thunder and lightening, and brief outbreaks of painful hail that, very reluctantly, I decided not to continue over Wideopen Hill, but instead to take the B-road on towards Yetholm. The distance is about the same, and there seemed little point in risking being on an exposed hilltop at 1200' in a thunderstorm, especially as the reward would have been panoramic 360 degree views of the inside of a cloud.Just after Morebattle ? on the road route, that is ? is Linton, whose church is apparently one of the oldest in use in Scotland, and which, despite Christ's advice to St Peter, is built not on rock but on sand. The church's tympanum shows local hero Sir John Somerville killing the Linton Worm, or dragon, for which he was knighted by King William the Lion, and granted much land in the parish. According to Sir Walter Scott's version, the beast was in lenth three Scots yards, and somewhat bigger than an ordinary man's leg, with a head more proportionable to its lenth than greatnesYou know you've got really wet when the money in your wallet is damp. Fortunately it was not cold and there was virtually no wind, so the discomfort wasn't that great ? the Guardian's late great Harry Griffin always maintained that, once you're wet, you can't get any wetter, so you might as well strip off and have a swim, but this might have raised Scottish eyebrows and isn't especially practical (or comfortable) when you're lugging an 8 kg rucksack, anyway.For Pennine Way walkers Kirk Yetholm is the goal. Alfred Wainwright, whose picture adorns the bar of the Border Hotel here, describes it as "a quiet village pleasantly set around a tree-shaded green", adding There is no brass band to greet you, there is nobody waiting to pin a medal on your breast. There may be people about but they will take no notice of you. Nobody cares that you have walked, and just this minute completed, the Pennine Way ... the satisfaction you feel is intensely personal and cannot be shared: the sense of achievement is yours alone simply because you have earned it alone.No such sense of achievement for St Cuthbert's pilgrims, as we're only a little over half way there.More tomorrow, as Sykes marches on...Walking holidaysScotland & Northern IrelandAlan Sykesguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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