Walking: Roxburghshire (Stobs Camp)

[forthbridge]

Hey all/ Inkeeping with 'getting out', I headed south of Hawick today to wander around the site of Stobs Camp
Very little remains, but the scale is vast. This is looking from the main entrance road - a little behind the camera is an old closed railway station, POW cemetery and the B6399. It's very eery to stand here thinking about the numbers of Troops who walked up the road to entrain for the front

In the middle distance is a depp and steep ravine which forms a natural boundary


The remains of the gatehouse which was next to what became the POW hospital:



The single remaining POW hut





Odd shapes up by a gatehouse which stood next to a building marked 'prison' (presumably for difficult POWS)


Some old gunnery practice positions


I did take one or two more shots, but photobucket seems to undo the rotation I made to them so they're not fit to display (portrait)..

There are lots of steps, walls and foundations of the old huts left, the roadways, (and copius amounts of asbestos roofing lying smashed everywhere)

As you're pretty much in the middle of nowhere, I stood looking at a pile of scrap that the local farmer has tossed into an small quarry within the site, (including a rusting 'Rally Chopper' bike).. and as I listened to the tangled bits of metal blowing in the wind, I did get a feel for the place.

This is a good site to read a little more:
http://www.spanglefish.com/stobsmilitarycamp/

[Garry Russell]

Cheers Jim

I love the sense of isolation

Garry

[DispatchDragon]

Jim

Are those odd octagonal concrete thingies AA gun mountings?

I remember seeing the same things at Whitcombe and at Upton St Leonards on either side of the Glosters factory???


leif

[forthbridge]

Hi Leif

I've an old (1920ish) map which shows the precise layout there and they're marked as 'tanks' they're about 950 feet ASL at the peak of the ridge. They certainly don't look like tanks unless something sat on top of them?

[speedbird591]

Thanks for posting these pics, Jim. What an amazing place! You've certainly captured the feel of it - it seems very lonely and exposed.

It's great to see places that we would normally never see. I'll go and read that link now

Cheers

Ian

[VEGAS]

Great shots Jim.

I love the errie feel to historic and derelict buildings. Especially from this era. There is always something that fascinates me about such places.

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed those.

[Paul K]

Very interesting indeed. Thanks Jim.