Lochs and Reservoirs

I’m not doing too well catching up on the things I’ve been doing – blog-wise, that is!  My last entry was a week after the event and here I am again only now posting last weekend’s news.  I’ll not make it such a long post this time. 

So, it was a glorious weekend this time last week, and on the Sunday afternoon Morag and I decided to take a run in the car to St Mary’s Loch and the Loch o’ the Lowes.  There is car-parking on the bank of the smaller Loch o’ the Lowes, so getting a lovely spot right down near the water was our good fortune.  The Glen Cafe on the roadside facing the loch is a very popular spot and we joined the queue of bikers who gather here on a weekend, to buy sandwiches and homemade cake to take back to the car for our picnic lunch.  Sitting back in the car with the windows wide open we were able to enjoy the sun, and the light breeze that came from being beside the water in a valley.  We ate our lunch while watching everyone else at their various activities, some in boats, some just paddling, but most, like us, just picnicking, eating ice-creams and generally enjoying the fine weather.   

 

It was the group with the BBQ that eventually got us moving again, with the smoke and smells driving us away. 

Our route home took us a different way, the long way round, climbing gradually up a hill on a narrow twisty road to Megget Reservoir,  stopping at a couple of the viewpoints on the way.   At Cramalt, we found a reconstruction of part of the ruins of one of the ancient pele towers that are rather prolific in the Borders.  

 

 

The original 15th century tower had been covered by water when the valley was flooded in the early 1980s,  to form the reservoir supplementing the Edinburgh and Lothians water supply. This is an artist’s impression of the tower.  

Up the hill we twisted and just past the summit we got the first view of Talla, an older reservoir by about a century, way below us!   It is a steep twisting

 

descent into the valley, following a tumbling burn(stream). 

 

At the other end of Talla is the dam and the rather interesting outlet tower, overlooked by the

very imposing Victoria Lodge, which I gather is a 5-star Bed & Breakfast house.

On again to the tiny hamlet at Tweedsmuir where, just before the main road we diverted to the left to visit the third of the reservoirs in the area, 1960s Fruid.   I rather like the water monitoring building at the end of the dam.

 

 

And so, back to Tweedsmuir and onto the main road taking us back in the direction of home, to finish the day with tea in the garden!

Talk again soon.