Gordon Ramsey's egg
Sepecat Jaguar XX732 in Eskdalemuir Forest.
(Distance covered =
6.0 mile/Ascent =+368m)
I spent most of the Easter Holidays of 2022 fixing the Wife's Fiat Panda ready for it's MOT, and replacing the timing chain. The little Fiat has been christened 'Amanda', partly after Newcastle United's new owner and partly because it rymed with Panda.
I did have time to fit in one walk, so after much deliberation I decided to go and have a look for the remains of a Sepecat Jaguar in a forest near Hawick. Visiting the crashsite of XX732 had been on my to do list for quite a while but as it was in a forest it was a walk I had repeatedly passed up on in favour of more scenic routes.
Straight out of the car and into the trees.
My mate Stuart was over visiting his Ma in Glasgow, so he got his pass signed as well to accompany me, however we did have to compromise with our respective spouses and changed our planned day from the easter sunday to the bank holiday monday. We originally planned to go on the sunday to lessen the chance of encountering any Logging activity but the bank holiday monday worked just as well.
above and next two photos:- A bit of a grey day on the walk in with some rain showers but the weather improved later.
As there was very limited parking where we were starting our walk I met Stuart and his daughter Chloe in a laybye on the A7 near Teviothead and we left one car there. The walk in to XX732's crashsite was about 3 mile and didn't involve too many contour lines and as the weather was quite favourable for walking and there were no midge it actualy turned out to be quite a pleasant stroll.
Passing by Gordon Ramsey's hut*.
That window needs the damp sorting out!
We avoided that hill!
The hill in question.
Some
felled trees afforded us a bit of a view.
Above and below:-Although difficult to see on these photos this is the gouge where XX732 first struck the hillside.
Although we found the reported impact gouge pretty easily we at first thought that was all we were going to find, as immediatley north of the gouge was an impassable tangle of fallen trees that had been blown over in recent high winds.
Fallen trees immediately north of the impact scar.
Interestingly we did find small pieces of metal and wire mixed in with the roots of some of the fallen trees.
After making a detour around the area of fallen trees we began finding remnants of the Jaguar, but they were not scattered amongst the trees or hanging from the branches like in photos we had seen, taken by a large group who visited a few years earlier, instead they had all been collected together in several piles dotted around the forest.
One of several piles of wreckage found in the trees, this pile included a sizeable chunk of tyre.
We spent quite a while searching in the trees following a trail to the north consisting of small piles of wreckage and the occasional piece which must have been overlooked. After finding two valves placed at the base of a tree, we encountered another area of impassable wind fallen trees so took that as our que to about turn and head back through the woods to where we started.
Searching in amongst this stuff had already
proven pointless and quite dangerous, so we didn't bother at this end of
the wreckage trail..
On the way back through the woods we searched a bit further south and found several more pieces including more piles. As we now knew the direction of the wreckage trail we tried to follow it through the fallen trees back to the impact gouge but were again forced to make a detour around them.
Trying to follow the wreckage trail back through the fallen trees.
above and next 3 photos:-Making our way through the woods back to the car.
Above and below:-Two more views of Gordon Ramsay's Hut* taken on the way down. While having a quick nosey around in this Chloe made the unusual discovery of an intact ceramic egg?
Although not much of a waterfall it was the only one on offer on this walk.
The River Teviot.
Back to where we parked the car.
*--It wasn't actually called that but saying as it was at Ramsaycleuchburn!