Some battles worth fighting

On Easter Monday, after having spent Easter weekend at Ford and Etal Estate in the English Borders, we headed back to Galashiels.  Our chief goal was to return the infamous Peugeot e-208 car hire to Enterprise and then board Borders Rail that afternoon/evening for a couple overnights in urban Edinburgh, before catching our transatlantic flight home.  Anything that could be tacked on this bare bone travel itinerary for Easter Monday was extra...within some tight constraints.  

https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2023/08/theory-verus-practice-car-hire.html 

Previously mentioned, when we dropped off the e-208, it was nearly drained...the dashboard showed 29 miles of range remained.  In other words, about as much room for error as one wrong turn's worth of backtracking.  Skinny.  Worse was the fact that, being Easter Monday, many places were closed.  

Mindful that we needed to insure we had enough juice left to get the rented rig back to Galashiels precluded us from making detours that might push us past a literal point of no return.  Unfortunate.  We would have visited a couple more places in the Borders if we had had more range in the batteries. 

April 9, 2023 Gate; Ford Estate

We dispensed with any notion of a circuitous route back to Galashiels.  (After all, except for the depleted battery charge, we had a whole day of travel available.)  We resigned to take a secondary road (B6350) along the south bank of River Tweed from Cornhill-upon-Tweed to Kelso and then on to Galashiels.  The route, to be honest, was not entirely chosen due to our need to conserve distance.  The secondary route we took avoided traveling over the same "A roads" we had just driven on Good Friday, through Coldstream toward Flodden Field and our eventual accommodation at Ford Estate.  

Secondary "B roads" are not always the best direct routes.  Nor are they always in the best of shape. In this instance, however, B6350 was the most direct road and it was surprisingly in decent repair.  (Scotland's secondary roads often are not.)  Apparently, B6350 is a "belt around," a cutoff of sorts.  Running on the south bank, it avoids traffic bottles in Coldstream and crossing the Tweed bridge.  B6350 was certainly a step above typical B-roads. 

April 10, 2023--Carham (St. Cuthbert's) churchyard

The route was well chosen.  Scenic.  While traversing it, we made an unscheduled stop to walk at Carham.  A small village rarely found on most tourist radars, Carham is a quintessential Border village.  On the south side of River Tweed, Carham is in Northumbria, England.  North and directly across the river lies Birgham in The Borders, Scotland.  Here, the border is more or less a suggestion so to speak.  Not much difference between the sides.  For example, according to the 2011 United Kingdom Census, Carham holds England's greatest proportion of Scottish-born residents (at 33% of the local population).  

Watercolor by M.L.B. The Holme, Carham Sept 3, 1878

Before delving into Carham's historical importance, a few words on A and B roads might be warranted.  The Borders is in Zone 6 of U.K.'s road numbering scheme.  Thus, most roads in the Borders begin with 6; like B6350.  These are called "numbered distributor roads".  Once, perhaps 100 years ago, shorter numbered roads were allocated for the more important roads, whereas longer numbers (like B6350) were for the less.  They built more roads than they had shorter numbers, so the distinction is less important today. 

Main trunks are the "A roads" and, as expected, they carry heavier traffic as Class I roads, similar to state highways.  B-roads are generally Class II, similar to county roads.  The A-roads are fairly straight forward in terms of portside driving in mainland Scotland.  Not so the B roads.

April 10, 2023--River Tweed at Carham

First, bear in mind, road shoulders are not exactly the norm.  U.K. standardized maps make an important distinction in B-roads--their width.  Orange colored roads are "generally" over 4 meters wide.  Yellow roads are under 4 meters wide...if not considerably under.  Then there are Unclassified roads, "narrow roads with passing places".  These are supposed to be colored as red-dashed roads, being single tracks which may have pull outs to permit two way traffic.  To be honest, the Unclassified designation isn't applied nearly enough.  Roads to Flodden Field are prime examples.  Realistically, unimpeded two-way traffic is questionable, even though the roads to Flodden Field are mapped in yellow.  They shouldn't be.

Because a limited number of bridges cross the Tweed's course, traffic flow in this part of The Borders runs east-west, following River Tweed, the natural barrier separating the north (Scotland) from the south (England).  Regardless of whichever bank one decides to drive to return to Galashiels from Ford Estate, the distance was the same. So, we took B6350 and stopped at Carham.  

April 10, 2023--"The wee car park" at Carham

Carham was a free 'fer.  It met our tight distance requirement that we not travel too far afield on our return to Galashiels.  Check.  The diminutive car park at Carham (room for perhaps two vehicles...if they squeezed) was literally right on the rural secondary B-road--maybe five feet from what we call the fog line.  As such, the Carham stop added nothing to our mileage concerns.  Check.  

April 10, 2023--St. Cuthbert's viewed from the lower Holme

Given Carham's historical significance to Scotland's Borders, the lack of tourist interest in the village is surprising.  There is one upside to that...visitors to Carham have the place almost entirely to themselves.  The village church (Saint Cuthbert's) and the pastured grounds (The Holme) sloping down to the edge of River Tweed alone are worth a stop and walk.  While there well over an hour, we met one villager walking her dog by the river.  Another local was in the river's edge fly fishing.  And...one pesky village golden retriever trying to locate a gate to join its owner who was at a distance further up the Tweed--the dog walker reassured us that was all too common an event for the particular pooch in question.

April 10, 2023--Timeless Carham (compare to 1878 watercolor above)

The current church at Carham was built in 1798 to replace a former medieval structure.  But the church's presence is much older.  Some suggest St. Cuthbert himself built a church nearby (of wood construction). On the grassy Holme, undulations can be seen below the church tower to the banks of the Tweed.  These are assumed to be foundations of an earlier "black canon" monastery from the Middle Ages.  The site has yet to be archeologically excavated. 

Carham is said to be derived from an Old English place-name, with 'carr' meaning rock, and 'ham' meaning homestead.  Like everything else, that too is not without controversy.  And it has been argued for centuries.  Twelfth-century chronicler Richard of Hexham did not consider the name to be English, suggesting it was derived from the Cumbric word 'kair' which meant 'fortification'.  Perhaps.  But no fortification has been identified.  Nor has an ancient bridge which lent its name to Birgham in Scotland, directly across the Tweed from Carham.  On the other hand, a number of tall rocks do break the surface in the River Tweed, making Carham a lucrative and popular salmon fishing beat.  So, if unsure on the name, go with what is known..."Homestead at the rocks". 

The first written reference to Carham was from 670 AD, when it was granted to the Lindisfarne church by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria.  Before Northumbria was divested of its kingdom (by Scots, Vikings and finally the English) Northumbria's realm stretched from River Tees in England through Lothian to the gates of Edinburgh.  A significant part of that divestment took place in the pivotal battle fought at Carham in 1018 AD.  It ended in a decisive victory for the Scots, and Lothian was ceded to them.  The battle at Carham firmly fixed the border between England and Scotland as the center of River Tweed.  The border has been kept along this stretch of the Tweed for over 1000 years. 

Humans seem to be destined or condemned to repeat violence forever.  Throughout human history, from Cain and Abel to Bakhmut, Ukraine, violence has been omnipresent on every single page.  Doubtless, it may always be so. Yet paradoxically, some of those battles are worth fighting.  One such battle was at Carham, Northumberland on the south bank of River Tweed in 1018 as kingdoms were being formed.  River Tweed is now the divide between two nations--Scotland and England.  It has has not always been a border, even though "tweed" is taken from the Anglo-Saxon (Northumbrian) word for "boundary".  Only the future will tell if it remains so.

April 10, 2023--bench on River Tweed at Carham; Scotland opposite bank