SNT (day 1) Kirk Yetholm to Cessford

25th May 2026

It's always encouraging when the local bus driver has no idea where your final destination is even though it's 15 minutes away from his usual route.

It's been a long day sitting on trains and replacement busses trying to reach my starting point Kirk Yetholm, a twin village located on the English/Scottish border (Town Yetholm being it's twin on the Scottish side). It also happens to be a starting point of another well know trail Pennine Way, but I'm here to try and tackle the Scottish National Trail instead.

I've arrived at Berwick upon Tweed at midday spend here an hour walking along the river and eating Gregg's sausage rolls before boarding a local bus 67 to Kelso where I would change to the bus 81 going to the trailhead. Immediately after leaving Berwick the landscape opened up and became very rural, bus was happily hopping along an uneven narrow country road passing tiny villages and ruins of various more or less historical buildings. Halfway through a sign saying "Scotland Welcomes You".

In Kelso where I had to catch my last bus connection, I've met Ann, she started talking to me as she saw my backpack and knew I was a hiker.  She came here from London over twenty years ago and never thought about going back, she was in her 70s now and was strongly critical about capitalist culture, where people had no real skills or ambition and everything turned around money. She share few tips about the trail ahead with me, the conversation went so well that we almost missed the bus, but it turned out that the bus driver needed a toilet break and simply went passed us to return back to the bus stop few minutes later.

I've started hiking at about 5:30 pm and managed to cover few good miles following St Cuthbert's Way, the path was quite steep right from the get go and became smoother towards the end, going though villages and pastures. I had a hard time finding anywhere suitable to pitch the tent as it was mostly fenced off private land but managed to squeeze in by the side of the road just before sunset.

I'm happy that I've managed to successfully initiate this new adventure and I'm looking forward to what surprises and challenges it will bring.

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