Berwick first appeared in written history in the late 10th century when under David I it became a Royal Scottish Burgh. for the next 400 years it was constantly fought over by Scotland and England changing hands over 12 times until 1482. In 1551 Queen Elizabeth I spent what might be the most ever on any project of her reign when she had the fortress walls designed and built to be able to resist artillery fire, still a relatively new step in warfare.
These massive fortifications are incorporated into the walls that surround the town including a gunpowder storeroom.
The weather was great with no wind to speak of and plenty of sun so I spent over 4 hours simply walking the walls and the streets of Berwick. A good place for both exercise and contemplation.
In 1826 the harbour was revamped to include a pier and therefore a lighthouse. The interesting thing of the 40′ high lighthouse is the roof is made of one piece of stone!
The Berwick Bridge of 1162′ was built in 1624 making it one of the oldest existing bridges in Scotland.
This was semi replaced (it is only one way today) by the Royal Tweed bridge in 1928.
Most of the original castle was destroyed when the train bridge was built in 1850.
There is a nice riverwalk along this section of the Tweed and whilst sitting there noticing that the sun seemed to move horizontally from SSE to SSW rather than the more usual overhead that must occur in the summer I reflected on the abundant bird life including swan, geese, oystercatchers, and mergansers when I saw some unusual currents in the water. I know the river has lots of salmon but suddenly a pair of seals broke the surface.
After both the hikes in Glasgow and Berwick, I took time to rest and recover but in reality one could take in all that there is to see in Berwick in a day and half. Speaking of seeing, I had broken one pair of glasses and failed at repairing them in Plockton so the fact that my primary pair were starting to get loose caused some concern but I found a Supersavers store where Daniel generously and quickly repaired them for me. Whilst waiting I noticed that the prices seemed much better than what I was used to in the States. He informed me that most of the lenses in the US are made by one firm but in the UK no such monopoly is allowed hence good competition.
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