Day 24 - Southern Borders - Ledburgh Abbey and Hermitage Castle

We departed our sweet flat and headed south toward the Southern Borders region of Scotland for two last visits to some heritage locations.  The drive took us once again past Stirling and through Edinburgh on motorways before we exited onto our four-digit-single-track favorites.  We reached the village of Jedburgh and its great abbey.  There we roamed the ruins before heading out to Hermitage Castle.

 This train tressle made of stone resembled a Roman aqueduct.

 Hermitage Castle was quite a treat.  The outer walls being completely intact, we were welcome by a very imformed gate attendant who gave us a history of the Reivers (clans) of the south, most notibly the Eliots and the Armstrongs, the later being the most notorious and vicious.  This is the castle where Mary Queen of Scots road to meet her wounded future husband and it was the location of some great historical events.  Its remote location, well off seldom traveled roads meant we petty much has it to ourselves.  Our Historic Scotland Explore Pass was used once again and by this time we had enjoyed better then 2 times the original pruchase price, having visited so many sites in the past week.

We ended out LONG drive day in Leeds, a very large town in central England in the County of York. This was not only a resting place for the night but also the home of a former traveling companion from the Silk Road tour I took six years ago.  She joined up in the evening and we had a grant reunion at an historic restaurant in a nearby village.