The River Tweed, from Fairnilee to Coldstream

2026 08 31 – The River Tweed, from Fairnilee to Coldstream by Sue Lowndes

“Sue”

“Yes, Mike”

“You could bring another boat and go solo.”

“Ooh, there’s an idea!”

And so with that idea, 4 open canoes paddled down the Tweed over the bank holiday weekend.  Keith had forewarned us that the water levels would be low.  Great, I thought, less chance of me capsizing! 

Following an excellent meal at the entertaining Mandarin Chinese restaurant in Peebles, we had a sketchy stealth camp in the park!  Don’t ask!  This weekend was to be the first of many firsts!  Also got to love the Costa, which was open at 7.30 am on Saturday.

With water levels low, it was decided to put in downstream of the grade 2 Fairnilee Rapids, which, when looked at from the bridge, had many exposed rocks.  From the onset, the scenery was stunning, the wildlife plentiful and every now and again, fish jumped out of the river!  We paddled past Abbotsford (the home of Sir Walter Scott) and the end of the Tweed Valley Canoe Trail and stopped for our elevenses or was it lunch just outside Tweedbank. 

We’d been blessed with seeing such an array of wonderful wildlife, including an eel swimming in the shallows, herons and egrets, life was bliss… and then we encountered such low water that we were forced to get out and portage the opens over a section of rocks which had trickles running in between.  We apologised to families picnicking along the edge and then an opportunity to put our lining practice into reality as we lined the boats through bigger gaps in between the rocks. 

Back on at Gattonside we continued along where by now I was getting weary and pondered on when camp would be.  After just under 23km of paddling we stopped for ‘camp’.  With wild camping comes quiet, isolation and a strong desire to get into bed.  A great first day paddling.

It was no surprise that we woke to rain, and more rain, and more rain.  But with rain comes water!  Not enough though and so a quick learning curve that low water results in low flow results in harder paddle.  Harder paddle plays havoc with your mindset and it felt at times that I was paddling backwards especially with the wind blowing against us.  Thank heavens for trail mix and smarties! 

I kept momentum by spotting egrets in trees and then considered why Keith and Mike had stopped ahead of us, looking intently ahead and then paddled to the side and got out!  Oooh, elevenses?!  No, Mertoun Cauld (or a weir to un-Scottish-me).  “Right, no mucking about, you’ve lot loads of these to do today, follow my line.”  Right, that’s us told then! 

No mucking about, we paddled down our first Cauld in an open.  Little “yippies” and now awake and even better, the rain had stopped! 

On reflection, day 2 was a bit of a blur. Colin gave up counting how many gillie boats he’d spotted.  At some point we portaged up the bank, along the field and back in.  Was that the time Keith ran it and got a little stuck?  Camp was a welcome relief but finding that our tent inner was sooping wet wasn’t!  Note to self (or Colin), detach the wet outer next time.

Day 3 was drier. Yippie.  The sky looked a little brighter so no cag today.  Today was also a shorter day as it was home day.  Egrets and herons continued to welcome us along the bank as did fly fishermen and women and even a passing fish jumped out close enough for me to see it’s top fin.  The wind gave us a gentle push along and I reflected on my first river solo in an open.  I’d tackled a cauld, run several rapids and didn’t capsize, and pushed hard against flow, or lack of, and wind.  I reflected.  It was tiring.  It was painful at times.  It was absolutely amazing and I loved it!  Huge thanks to Mike for organising, encouragement and opportunities and for driving!  Thank you Keith and Mike for helping us move heavy canoes and choosing great campsites.