Brian Henry led 19 walkers from the Biggar Ramblers on a muddy and watery 7 mile walk over fields, old railway lines and a former coach route out from Blyth Bridge.Passing Blyth Farm the route then passed their manure and slurry dump, which 'delighted' many, and over fields that were quite waterlogged. Descending to Felton with a good view to Mendick and along the farm road the group turned north to walk the old Edinburgh to Biggar railway route to reach the Bogsbank Road from West Linton. As parts of this are regularly used by local farms there was more mud and water encountered. The lunch stop was just after leaving the road and views on one side was to Mendick and the other side was to Drum Maw above Romano Bridge. The return to Blyth Bridge was along the Old Coach Road which passed through a tree plantation, past many 'egg-sheds' and across open fields; there was even more mud and water to dodge around or walk through which allowed many to make unsuitable comments to the walk leader.

On Wednesday 8/2/17 eleven Biggar Ramblers met to walk around White Hill from Dolphinton. They were lucky with the weather but previous rain had made the going very muddy in places. There were great views on this walk looking back to the Broughton Heights and ahead over Mendick Hill and the Pentlands. It is a short walk, four and a half miles, which meant they were back in good time for a visit to The Big Red Barn for an excellent snack lunch and a chance to enjoy each other's company in a nice relaxing environment. The next walk on 19/2/17 is another local circular this time from Blyth Bridge.

Saturday 4th February, Wanlockhead: Southern Upland way 8 Miles

As the walkers prepared for their walk having parked in Meadowfoot at the far end of Wanlockhead their eyes were drawn to the sky as the dark grey clouds drifted over them looking foreboding as they covered the tops of the hills.
They walked down the old little-used road and felt the first drops of rain, they crossed the bridge over the heavily swollen Wanlock Waters rushing beneath.

Going up the steep zigzag path the rain had now turned to snow and became heavier as they got higher and on reaching the top they were hit by an icy cold wind. The 3 walkers made the decision to carry on over the western slopes of Glengaber (515mt) as they could still see to navigate the rough moorland path with the Southern Upland way markers but with none of the excellent slopes of Lowmill Known ( 448mt) to head down to the ruined farmstead in the floor of the valley at Cogshead
with its extensive pine plantation and here they stopped to collect a coin from the Kist.

They left the valley and started to make their way up through the trees. The weather had improved, it had stopped snowing and they sheltered from the wind and sitting out of the forest on Duntercleuch (390mt) for luch they were rewarded with extensive views into the distance of rolling hills and now on their final stretch back along a good track to the cars the clouds cleared and once again they were this time rewarded with blue skies and sunshine which brought smiles all round and announced four seasons in one day.

Thursday January 26th was a gloriously sunny day and this brought out 16 Ramblers to walk from Broughton to Biggar along the old railway line. The walk began by catching the local bus from Biggar to Broughton but there were too many to fit into the tiny bus and some had to go to the start of the walk by car.

The walk itself is flat and easy and 5 miles overall. The weather forecast had been for a very cold SE wind but fortunately this did not materialise and this added to the enjoyment of perfect winter walking weather. Once back in Biggar, everyone was treated to a bowl of hot soup.

The walk was led by Bernard Airlie