The HLR was opened in 1989 as a tourism project on behalf of the local landowner, Lord Joicey, who wanted to promote the undoubted attractions of the Etal and Ford estates near Cornhill-on-Tweed. The 15” gauge line was built on a former saw mill site at Heatherslaw, Northumberland, making it England’s most northerly steam line.
The two and a quarter mile track runs alongside the River
Till as far as Etal, where the castle ruin is looked after by English Heritage.
In 1513, the castle was captured by James IV of Scotland on his way to fight
the English at Flodden Field, which turned out to be not such a good idea.
James himself was killed and it is thought that as many as 14,000 soldiers [in
total, from both sides] lost their lives. Cycling along the valley side where
such slaughter had once taken place, much of it in the boggy land at the foot
of the slope to our right, was quite a sobering experience.
Reaching Heatherslaw, we were hauled by Lady Augusta, an 0-4-2 tender locomotive, commissioned from the Ravensglass and Eskdale Railway, who then subcontracted out the actual construction to the Kirklees Light Railway. The destination of Etal also boasts the excellent Lavender Tearooms, where we took a light lunch in the garden, bathed in autumn sunshine. The relative tranquillity of the present at such a moment seemed somehow more marked after those stark reminders from the past. Then we headed back over the formerly troublesome border on the River Tweed at Coldstream. Nothing stays still for long, I mused. This border may become an issue once more before long. In reality, of course, we had already left a trouble-free existence behind the moment we left the tearoom.
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