History
The Cross Borders Drove Road is based on the main route used by drovers taking cattle and sheep from the trysts (markets) at Falkirk and Crieff to markets south of the border, between the 16th and 19th centuries. It runs from Little Vantage, near Harperrig Reservoir, over the Cauldstane Slap in the Pentland Hills and through Peebles to Hawick.
By the 1990s much of the old route had become impassable. A mapping exercise by community councils, prompted by the British Horse Society, identified it as a route worth developing, and most of it became part of the multi-use South of Scotland Countryside Trails network, with new bridges, drainage and path links.
The route is now largely managed by Scottish Borders Council.
Sources: South of Scotland Countryside Trails: Cross Borders Drove Road; Wikipedia: Cross Borders Drove Road; Scotland's Great Trails: Cross Borders Drove Road
Facts
- Code
- UK 029 (provisional)
- Distance
- 51.0 miles (82.1 km). We measure 53.5 miles
- Sections
- 3
- Type
- Linear
- Opened
- 2005
- Designation
- One of Scotland's Great Trails
- Looked after by
- NatureScot (Scotland's Great Trails) / Scottish Borders Council / South of Scotland Countryside Trails
- Nations
- Scotland
- Total ascent
- Still to be measured