The Three Brethren, from Yarrowford
About 5 miles. Roughly 1,050 feet of climb. Three to four hours. Moderate — a steady hill walk on good paths and old drove roads.
This is the walk to do in late summer, when the hills above the Yarrow turn purple with heather and the air is full of the coconut smell of gorse and the hum of bees. It climbs from the village of Yarrowford up to one of the great landmarks of the Borders: the Three Brethren, three huge drystone cairns standing nine or ten feet high on the skyline, each one a small tower rather than the usual heap of summit stones.
They are old. The first was built in 1512 by Alexander Pringle, Laird of Yair, and two more were added later, so that the three together mark the meeting point of three estates — Yair, Philiphaugh, and the burgh of Selkirk. They have stood for over five hundred years. Riders of the Selkirk Common Riding still climb to them each June, as their forebears did, to check the marches. To stand among them is to stand at a boundary that has mattered to people for half a millennium.
Start from the telephone box on the A708 in Yarrowford, where a green right-of-way sign points to the Minchmoor Road — one of the oldest roads in the Borders, a drove road along which cattle were once walked between the Tweed and Yarrow valleys, now part of the Southern Upland Way. Follow it uphill. The climb is steady rather than steep, and the views open behind you as you rise: the Yarrow Water threading its valley, the hills folding away to the south. Near the top, join the Southern Upland Way and follow it the last stretch to the cairns.
“To stand among them is to stand at a boundary that has mattered to people for half a millennium.”
From the Three Brethren the view is enormous: a great sweep of the Southern Uplands, the Eildon Hills catching the eye to the east, ridge upon ridge of moor and forest and grazing. This is a place to linger — to eat your sandwiches in the lee of a cairn out of the wind, and watch the cloud shadows move across the hills. Then return the way you came; the descent gives you the views all over again, downhill and easy, back to Yarrowford.
Take a map (OS Landranger 73), proper footwear, and more layers than the morning suggests — the top is exposed and the Borders weather changes its mind quickly. There is nothing at the start, so bring what you need; but Selkirk, a few miles on, has everything, and the Gordon Arms is not far for afterwards.
From The Scullery
Letters from the Scullery is a bi-monthly publication from The Scullery, a boutique one-bedroom cottage at Ladhope in the Yarrow Valley, Scottish Borders. Join the Inner Circle at the-scullery.com for early access to dates and Inner Circle rates on midweek stays.