Baden-Powell Council BSA
at the
2010 Blair Atholl Patrol Jamborette

Day 4 - July 16th - Borders and East Lothian

Our first stop on July 16th was the beautiful Melrose Abbey, built in 1136 by Cistercian monks. We all picked up audio guides and walked around the ruins for several hours.

	We reached the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune Airfield at lunchtime. East Fortune was used as an airbase during both World Wars, and into the Cold War afterward.  In one hangar the museum houses the first operational Concorde supersonic transport, G-BOAA (left).
Another hangar houses military aircraft from WWII through the Cold War	Hangar six is the "be sure to touch everything" exhibit, with hands-on activities about flying. Here, Theo rides a spinning platform to see the effects of moving his center of gravity inward and outward from the pivot.
We got a great tour of the restoration hangar from a very enthusiastic volunteer.	David in an RAF Link Trainer (made, oddly enough, in his home town of Binghamton, NY)
	After dinner we did about a 3 mile hike to Edin's Hall Broch, a hill fort dating to the 2nd century - older than Hadrian's Wall.  It was a long walk through cow and sheep pastures - we appreciated the stone steps built into the pasture walls.
Once we finally made it to Edin's Hall, the walk was well worth it. Our Scout who had volunteered to be the "instant expert" for the day told us about the Broch, and we explored the ruined walls.
The view from the Broch was spectacular
Our evening lodging was the St. Abbs Community Hall on the North Sea Coast (and "thank you" to the folks in St. Abbs!). We arrived late, but even after 10:00PM it was still light enough to take a sunset walk down into the harbor.