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Daily Sketch

Camping in the Borders

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A last minute stay in the Scottish Borders proved to be the perfect escape before school starts.

At the weekend the Sketcher Clan took a camping break to a favourite campsite; Ruberslaw in the Scottish Borders. Just an hour and a half away in the car, the stunning location sits between Hawick and Jedburgh in the heart of the rolling border hills.

Although we had meant to be there for three nights we stayed for two and a wonderful three days in the country, disconnected from our gadgets. The above sketch is of their beautiful glass house which sits within a walled garden.

James and Zoe had a great time playing into the dark with children on the campsite, including what looked like a toasted marshmallow eating tent crawl !

It was my mistake about the length of stay, I had mistakenly thought the schools in Edinburgh went back a day later than they actual did. The error did mean however that we could take our time packing up on the Tuesday morning and also fit in another walk up the hill to see the sheep and the ‘truly wild’ camping pitches (and safari tents) up in the woods.

Perhaps next time we will venture further from the comforts of the walled garden and communal hub!

Take a look at this family friendly campsite via their website HERE

We have visited Ruberlaw Wild Woods Camping before, back in 2016 and HERE is my post and sketches from then.

Daily Sketch

A weekend camping in the Scottish Borders

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ruberslaw-camping_tentThe past weekend the Sketcher Clan took a short break in the Borders to try out our new tent and found a beautiful little campsite hidden in the woods.

With twins who are five and a half Mrs Sketcher and I though it was a good time to invest in a family tent and introduce the kids to the wonderful world of camping.

Although not the sleeping on hard ground, crawling in and out of your tent, getting dressed without standing up camping that I knew as a boy, oh no. This was more like glamping to me – blow up beds and a 6 man tent with seperate rooms, that you can walk through without ducking once! The words ‘don’t know you’re born’ came to mind but I resisted.

We set off from Edinburgh after collecting the wee ones from school and were headed to a campsite near Berwick but unfortunately half way there we found out they had closed so had a slightly panicked internet search to find another one with space and our one must have – the freedom to light a fire.

This was more like glamping to me – blow up beds and a 6 man tent with seperate rooms

So after a slight detour we found our self at Ruberslaw Wild Woods Camping just outside Hawick.

We couldn’t of been more pleased, the site is partly within a walled garden, surrounded by trees and with cars kept to the very close car park it is perfect for kids to make friends and wander free. Plus we had our own fire pit sit around at night toasting marshmallows. Pure Bliss.

The Sketcher Twins and I drawing in the campsite.
The Sketcher Twins and I drawing in the campsite.

Hopefully autumn still has a few sunny weekends to come so if you can head along for a mini break before they close at the end of October.

The Ruberslaw Wild Woods Camping website

There is a lovely illustrated map of the site on there by Melrose artist Diane Lumley.

The twins watercolour drawings of our tent
The twins watercolour drawings of our family tent