A Walk At Hoddom Castle Estate

Rob, Brock and I went on a walk around the 'Farm Trail' at Hoddom Castle Estate.

The weather was sunny and warm, and the Spring flowers were appearing everywhere - beautiful!

 Bridge over the River Annan

 Forget-me-nots

Ransoms

Lesser Celandine (I think!)

 Brock's new fur cut

 Hoddom Castle (a bit of it, anyway).

Golf course

Wild Flowers in an Abandoned Graveyard

Rob, Brock and I often walk to the abandoned grave yard at Kirkconnel on the Sprinkell Estate, Eaglesfield. Apparently there was a medieval village with a church here at one time. There is now just a ruined mausoleum and lots of 18th century and newer grave stones.

There is an easy walk to it along by Kirtle Water, a small river with views of fields of sheep, lovely old trees and, at this time of year, wild flowers. We were also lucky enough to spot a swarm of bees!

Please click on any photo to see a larger version.

 The remains of the mausoleum in the background.

Lots of the grave stones have these rather morbid skulls/heads on them and other symbols of mortality.

The last photo is of Brock, taken back in May on the same walk.

Walk Near Kirtlebridge

Rob and I went on a three mile circular walk from our house, down towards the village of Kirtlebridge, back along the B7076 towards Kirkpatrick Flemming, turning off at the Robgill Bridge turning and back up to our house. The verges were alive with birds, especially young fledgelings, and packed with flowers. We try to allow as many wild flowers as possible to grow in our garden, so it is interesting to see what grows well locally.

Here are some of the plants we saw on our walk (including chive flowers in our garden!). (Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.)

Rob took this photo of the Burnswark Hillfort that we can see from our road. It is a late Iron Age fort, later used by the Romans in the 2nd Century.

This is Robgill Tower: (it's up for sale if you have a spare £2,250,000.00!).

A view of Kirtle Water taken from Robgill Bridge, with Robgill Tower in the background.

Brydekirk to Annan River Walk

Rob and I decided to go for a slightly longer walk today - a six mile circular walk from Brydekirk to Annan along the banks of the River Annan, and back. The directions for the walk can be found on page 14, option C of the Annan Walking Booklet.

 We saw many different bird species, including herons (one shown below), dippers, mallards, goosander (I think!), and the usual smaller birds.

This is the Jubilee Suspension Bridge, one of four bridges along this stretch of the river.

 

There were carpets of wildflowers in the woods and fields along the way. Lots of wood anemones, bluebells, forget-me-nots (below) and more.

 A view of the weir.

 

 

 Approaching Annan.

We stopped in Annan for a coffee and a sit down before starting on the return journey to Brydekirk, on the opposite river bank, passing through the Park in Annan.