Borderlines

There are those times when it's wet and windy outside, and there's nothing for it but to wheel out the mountainbike. It's a fill in for us. A way to walk out the door past the beckoning vacuum cleaner and make the most of a marginal day.

Here and there, we've visited all of the 7 Stanes of Scotland, and a smattering of other mountain bike trail centres besides. Each of the 7 Stanes though, have a unique identity. In amongst the miles of tracks, somewhere, there's a stone. Doesn't sound much, and to most of the mountainbikers there, it probably means very little.


At the Scottish border with England, the sculpted stone at Newcastleton is inscribed with Rabbie Burns' Auld Lang Syne to the north and Jerusalem to the south. Some of the other Stanes are perhaps more subtle, esoteric even. There's one shaped like a Pictish arrow head and carved with runes. Another inscribed in Klingon.



Perhaps the symbolism of this stone is fairly obvious. But for some reason, I really like it.