A hike in Scotland’s borders – ‘a world of emerald hills, meandering rivers and tiny villages’

The Borders Railway Line opens up walking trails through a landscape of rivers, ruined abbeys and museums, bringing to life a turbulent and poetic past

Within minutes of leaving Edinburgh’s Waverley station, we’ve shaken off the urban sprawl and entered a world of emerald hills, meandering rivers, and tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-them villages. There are buzzards and deer, too. Under brilliant blue skies we surge into a land bathed in history and intrigue.

I’m back on the Borders Railway for the first time since September 2015, when I joined the first passenger train to run on the reopened Borders line in almost half a century. The journey from Edinburgh to Tweedbank is only an hour, but today I’ll be venturing further: I’m hiking for three days in search of both history in the Borders Badlands and a brace of new museums that are bringing that tumultuous history alive.