Cemeteries, and an AirB&B in Hawick

May 12, 2026

Arrived to a comfy Air B&B in Hawick, just one street from the bus station (being how I got here), and a 10 minute walk to the Heritage Hub (but with no luggage!)

For those not on my private channel, my big, heavy, present laden orange suitcase is stored at Mike and Celia's in Edinburgh. So I am only carting around a small overnight bag and my backpack.

What adventures I had over the weekend hiring a car! Mike is over 89 years old and a little forgetful. So a Sat Nav was essential, even though he was certain he knew the way everywhere having grown up and lived (at times) in Edinburgh. Thank god for the Sat Nav. In ensuring this amazing resource I needed to upgrade to a black BMW that was an automatic and had a very large integrated Sat Nav. With the cheaper option you had to plug in your phone with data (another saga for another day). It was also a hybrid vehicle so it was very quiet even using fuel. It was sleek, it had many controls, when you opened the door it played classical music. Mike barely could get in with his bad back.

Well, it took us 3 minutes at least to find the start button, which turned out to be a large shiny silver button named Start/Stop next to the gears, which was a sliding bar. Very flash as you can see.

Me and my BMW, I liked it

And that was were they live - Belgrave House, Corstophine (pronounced Cor-store-fin, so the taxi driver had never heard of it on my original pronunciation). Pity it is a little distorted in the picture as it is a lovely house; but in fact their house was around the back, in converted servant quarters. Their sofa was very cosy, and no cat or dog disturbed my sleep. I am still waking after 5am when it is fully day light here. I was tired as they like to watch TV till quite late, and with it quite loud.

But they were very welcoming, we had special meals that Celia prepared while Mike and I pored over his Ancestry tree, fixing up errors. I fixed up some of my errors too along the way.

So Mike and I we spent a day driving around Midlothian and East Lothian, where Mike's ancestors were buried. It was punishing. I photographed every headstone in Borthwick Cemetery as it is not on FindAGrave or BillionGraves, so I might make up a spreadsheet of them. Three were definitely Buchans.

I made about 6 wrong turns from the Sat Nav, because it was orientated 180 degrees from what I saw in the windscreen, but the lady was very polite as she suggested a do a U turn as soon as possible. After a reviving cuppa when we got home about 4.30pm, I drove off my myself to some mesolithic and roman ruins not too far from Corstophine, about 15 minutes. These were on the northern coastline of Midlothian, along the River Forth. The mesolithic site, being a campsite dated to 8,500 BCE, is believed to be the earliest evidence of people in Scotland after the end of the ice age.

From the information board at the site

According to the board, the people discovered Scotland after the Ice Age melted and covered Doggerland, thereby separating the British Isles from Europe. People moved north up the coasts looking for food. Here at the mouth of the River Almond, as it entered the much larger River Forth, they found fish, shellfish, wild animals, berries and nuts, especially hazelnuts. Archaeologists used the burnt hazelnut shells (because of course, like us, they prefer them roasted; we saw a lot of this being sold on the streets of Istanbul) to carbon date the site to 8,500 BCE (or over 10,000 years ago). They also found stake holes and pits and tools made of flint and chert.

There was, of course, just a tangle of vegetation at this site and the Roman bathhouse on the day I visited! There was little to see of the Roman Fort, but this was one picture below. As always I misunderstood the information board as to where they were. I had parked not in the public carpark, which had a handy information board identifying the ruins as directly behind the carpark. Instead, I wandered down to the foreshore - a bleak, cold place - and took a right turn. This took me along the foreshore for quite some distance until I realised I was not in the right spot. I had to run to catch up with an elderly couple having their early evening stroll, but they changed their route in order to lead me back to the roman ruins and point out the track in the bushes back to the car park. I do enjoy letting locals help me find stuff.

Not much walls, and the big one at the back belongs to the kirk

It is 6.45pm here now, brilliant sunshine outside my three windows! I hope it will get dark soonish, as I would like an early night.

There must always be a horse. In our ancestral home, Newlandrig, a big horsey area as it turns out, we saw two clydesdales. One was being trained as she walked along a one lane road. I was doing one of my U-turns, and was parked in a handy driveway: