Extra visit to Wooplaw

If you've been following the blog, you'll know that we've been working on a dry stone bridge and nearby walls at Wooplaw Community Woodland. Some of our members were keen to try to get this finished, or at least more finished, before the winter set in, so last weekend we had an 'extra' visit to the site - report and photos by Mike.

There were 5 of us - Richard, Alan, Dave (who arrived via the new Borders Waverley line and then walked up from Stow), myself and Steve: however, we weren't the only ones there as the woods were filled with camp fires and the smell of breakfast cooking. Over the weekend there was a gathering of 'bush-crafters' in the woods and seeing some of their awnings I didn't envy them being bivouacked in the woods on the coldest night of the year so far! Speaking to a couple of them, they had travelled from as far as Newcastle and Chesterfield, so Wooplaw must be something of an attraction.

e almost completed the remaining section of wall to join our bridge, but a combination of Steve leaving at lunchtime, Dave excavating tons of mud to create a 'paved Roman road' and the rest of us finishing early to watch the World Cup rugby, meant that the task is still not quite finished.You can see from the photos what is basically needed is another outing to level up and put copes on.