A route from the rare sighting of a free car park in Langholm, I led a party of 3 in the Eskdale & Castle O'er Forest region, which lies along the border of Scotland and England near Gretna and Longtown. From Langholm we walked along to Castle Hill, Potholm Burn, Potholm (310m), with it's twin summit cairns, to Longfauld Wood, Holmhead, Castle Bank and Langholm. There is a splendid view over the A7 towards Hawick from here, as well as a great view towards the Solway, the Lakes and North Pennines. This is a pleasant route with lots of different plant life to see at various times of year, including hawthorn, cowslip, Meadowsweet, Great Willowherb, bracken, with Sycamore and oak (to name but a few of the trees to be found in this pleasant area). Skylark were heard and crows were aplenty. A farmer had set out some dead moles on a fence in the valley bottom. This area is often forgotten by walkers in the rush to reach the higher Scottish fells or the Lake District. As such, the paths are faintly trod and are a mixture of pleasant grassland, peat bogs and forest. There is also electric fencing in the area to stop the cows wandering, some of the signs have blown away, so be warned!! Some of the land where the cows have trod is quite thick with sludge and care should be taken not to slip (especially if to do so means you putting your hand inadvertently on the electric fence!!!) There were some heavy showers in the area at the time, luckily these went around us so we stayed dry throughout. The walk was a short one, approximately 5.5 miles.
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