Minto and Fatlips, Part 3, by Wally Turnbull

Fatlips Castle Border Tower House

Wednesday night had been late so our rising in Hawick on Thursday morning May 20^th proved to be the same.  As we peered sleepily out the window we wondered if a storm was brewing.  The sky was completely grey with clouds rapidly moving from east to west.  Rain splattered hard against the windows as we drank our coffee in the hotel dining room.  We ate breakfast slowly as we fumbled for alternate plans to avoid climbing up to Fatlips in the rain.

Plan B Discarded

Suddenly, as though it had been waiting for us to finish breakfast, the sun burst from behind a particularly ominous cloud and the rain moved on with the wind.  Plan B which had been to spend the day in the Hawick Library was no longer even a memory as we grabbed the camera and headed out the door towards Minto.  Along the way to Minto, the sun teased us by popping in and out of the clouds.  Not only did it cause us to question whether or not we would get wet but the countryside became an ever-changing patchwork of light and dark areas.

From Hawick we went east to Denholm where we turned north a couple of miles to the well manicured little village of Minto.  At the entrance to the village

Minto Village and entrance to Minto Kirk

Across the road from the church the fairways and greens of the Minto 18 hole par 69 Golf Course stretch up to the crags atop which sit Fatlips Castle and the trees that surround it.  We turned and entered between two pillars and a wrought iron fence flanking a narrow road which leads through the golf course to Minto Estate.  This is not the entrance to the golf clubhouse but a separate road which runs through the course.  We drove through the golf course where a handful of players kept looking at the sky, perhaps wondering if they dared start another hole.

 
Minto Estate with fields and pasture