Annandale Way: Day 1. The Moffat - Devil's Beeftub Loop

Moffat - Devil's Beef Tub - Moffat (loop walk) 23.7 km

And now for something completely different: A long-distance walk not in warm, dry southern France and Italy, but in cool, damp Scotland!

Did I say damp? Make that wet. Make that... soaking!

Typical ground underfoot on the Annandale Way today

My hiking boots have been spoiled so far. And my rainproof trousers - barely used. Here, they are finally in their element!

When you're not sinking in mud, or fording an impromptu stream, you are squelching through bog. At first you try to step around the wet patches, but after a while you realise it's actually all just one big wet patch, so you just give up and plod right through. Avoiding the cow patties and sheep dung, wherever possible.

But look up! As I was told in the hostel in Revel, "Tu regards tes pieds. N'as tu donc que ça à faire? Prends un peu de hauteur!"

Look up! What lies ahead?

Fog!

Enjoy the view on the Annandale Way!

At least you don't have to worry about a lot of the things I'm normally concerned about on Long Walks - like heat stroke, sunburn or dehydration!

And there is always something exhilarating about walking, despite all the mist and the muck.

When the mists do clear, what a view!

Below us lies the Devil's Beef Tub, so named because a notorious band of thieves of the Johnstone clan, known as the Border Reivers but referred to as "the Devils" by their enemies, used the hollow as a handy spot for hiding stolen cattle. In 1685 a Covenanter attempted to escape his escort here, but was shot dead on the spot; in 1746 a Jacobite named MacCleran was luckier, and succeeded in evading his captors by rolling down the steep hillside in thick mist. More recently, a van driver was both lucky and unlucky, when she lost control of her vehicle on the A701 and fell to the bottom of the chasm, but escaped with only a broken arm. According to my guidebook, the white van is still visible at the bottom, but we didn't see it; whether it has been taken away or was just shrouded in mist, I do not know, but there are pictures of it here!

“It looks as if four hills were laying their heads together to shut out
daylight from the dark hollow space between them. A damned deep, black, blackguard – looking abyss of a hole it is.”

- Sir Walter Scott, in The Red  Gauntlet

After circling round the Beef Tub, the Way climbs up to the Annanhead Hill, crossing fields of pastureland hugging the dry stone wall (to prevent you from getting lost in the mist, I imagine) then descends through a large area recently planted with young saplings, following the bed of the stream, until suddenly you find yourself in the bottom of that chasm you had been peering into from above.

Once in the bottom of the valley, the trail continues along a small country road past the turn-off to Heart Fell, where Merlin lived.

The town of Moffat finally comes (back) into view, and a short walk up the riverside path leads into the town. Never have we been so glad to see a hotel - where a hot shower, dry socks and a pint of Belhaven Best await!