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Daniel Scott sets off on foot and by bicycle to explore the border country of Scotland and England and finds a haven of peace and space among former battlefields and ancient castles.

We are exactly halfway through our four-day walk along St Cuthbert’s Way when I have a moment of near religious ecstasy.

Sitting outside a pub in the Scottish border town of Yetholm on a sunny summer evening, I reach down, undo my laces and release my feet from inside my walking boots. After struggling 27 kilometres up hill and down dale today, the relief is so palpable that I can almost hear all my limbs sigh in unison. Given that the route that we are walking is inspired by one of the founding fathers of European Christianity, St Cuthbert, such a religious moment is perhaps not surprising. In fact, since the seventh century holy man was also famous for his healing powers it is even more appropriate that it should be caused by the rapid alleviation of my pain.

There is, however, more to this brand new British walking trail than religious resonance. Even though a deep sense of peace accompanies us as we walk, the country we are moving through was once steeped in the blood of both the Scottish and English, as they fought battle after ferocious battle in this border region. Reminders of the hostilities are everywhere, from our starting point at the twelfth century Melrose Abbey, which is said to contain the heart of that scourge of the English, Robert the Bruce, to the crumbling fortresses which we encounter periodically along the way.

As we climb out of Melrose and over the saddle of the Eildon Hills on our first morning, we can already see what they were fighting over. From the top of these rounded heath-covered hills the views over the surrounding chunky countryside and its sprinkling of small historic villages are exhilarating. Then we descend through fern-strewn woods of firs and limes to the banks of one of Britain’s largest rivers – the Tweed. In the clear cool waters of the river we can actually see the trout weaving away from the cloth-capped fishermen’s’ rods.

After lunch that first day we continue along the edge of the river to join Dere Street, a Roman road which originally ran all the way from York to Edinburgh. Beside this path we also come across a monument commemorating one of the area’s most feisty characters – Lady Lilliard. It was she who helped the Scots inflict upon the English one of its heaviest defeats at the Battle of Ancrum Moor in 1545, despite one or two serious disadvantages, as the monument’s colorful inscription reports:

“Upon the English loons she laid many thumps And when her legs were cuttit off, she fought upon her stumps.”

We complete the first day’s walking at the village of Ancrum where we have our first taste of a borders B&B. If the grand old manor house is anything to go by we are in for a pleasant surprise. The next morning we leave Ancrum and progress through fragrant woods to the edge of the Teviot River, another glorious body of water running fresh and smooth through the Scottish borders. It is not long before we encounter another relic of the Scots/English struggles in the stark and lonely ruins of the fifteenth century Cessford Castle, was incessantly attacked by the English between 1519 and 1544. Such sites add a rich impression of history to the varied scenery we are walking through.

However, that afternoon’s climbs are the toughest of the entire walk. Both an evocative name and excellent views may distinguish each upward slope we meet, from Grubbit’s Law through Wideopen Hill to Crookedshaws Hill, but each one also makes increasingly severe demands on our aching limbs.

But we make it to the pub in Yetholm and my sense of euphoria lasts long into the evening. In fact, by the next morning I feel as if my whole body is rejuvenated.

My recovery is not the only near miracle of walking St Cuthbert’s Way. Today is our third consecutive sun-blessed July day in a region renowned for its dodgy weather. What is more, despite the fact that Britain is one of the most crowded countries in the world, we once again have the trail virtually to ourselves.

We spend much of this third day among the crags of the Northumberland National Park, having crossed into England early in the morning, and the countryside on this side of the border remains both spectacular and diverse. The Cheviot Hills are a little more open and windswept but beautiful woods, where the path is formed by avenues of trees, still punctuate their lower slopes and quiet hamlets like Hethpool continue to appear from time to time. Signs of this area’s warlike past persist too, with the Cheviots crowned in places by ancient hillforts, including the large-scale Yeavering Bell, a stronghold of the Votadini, the people who inhabited Northumberland and the Lothians in Roman times.

Shortly after lunch, we catch our first glimpses of the North Sea coast. It is, as they say, all downhill from here. Encouraged, it takes us just a couple of hours to descend to Wooler, the market town where we will be spending the night.

Our final day from Wooler to Lindisfarne is a long one but for the first morning of the walk our legs are feeling fine. We head jauntily out of town and are soon across the bleak and brackeny Weetwood Moor, over the River Till and through a series of hefty moors on our way to the coast. Then ahead of us we see the woods that contain St Cuthbert’s Cave, a National Trust site where the saint’s followers are thought to have brought his body in AD875, to escape from the marauding Vikings who were closing in on Lindisfarne. The cave remains a peaceful and secluded place, surrounded by pine forest.

After a brief pause we emerge from the woods and climb Fawcet Hill to get our first views of Lindisfarne Island, with the misty outlines of its castle and priory an inspiring sight that hastens us to the coast.

We then have a choice: having previously checked that the tides would be right with the Wooler Tourist Office, we can either make our way to Holy Island along with the cars on the causeway, or we can follow a series of wooden poles known as the “Pilgrim’s Path” across the wet sand. But to us there is no choice really: we can hardly wait to plunge our weary feet into the cooling North Sea. As we splash the final kilometres of St Cuthbert’s Way to Lindisfarne, we joke that there could be no more apt way to end a walk that is full of religious connotations than by literally walking on water.

It is also fitting that the island where we end our walk is one of the most important Christian sites in Western Europe, established as early as AD 635 by St Aidan, as well as the location of the beatification of Cuthbert as a saint. That evening we just have time to wander among the ruins of its resplendent twelfth century Priory before paying homage to St Cuthbert, in our own way: with a couple of pints of thirst-quenching local ale.

Over the following three days we stretch our leg muscles in a different way by climbing onto bicycles and heading off along the Northumbrian “Coast and Castles” cycle route. The route, which will form part of the UK’s exciting Sustrans National Cycling network (over 5500 kilometres of bike routes to be opened in mid 2000), hugs the magnificent coastline, following cliff-top paths and quiet country roads. It also leads us to a succession of indomitable medieval castles like Bamburgh, Alnwick and Warkworth. It is hard to leave any of them without the sound of ancient battles ringing in our ears.

Yet as we rejoin modern civilisation in the city of Newcastle, this is not the final impression we are left with of our trip. Rather what we remember is seven very peaceful days spent doing something which is healthy and good for the soul, in a wonderfully uncluttered part of the British Isles.

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