Monday 3 October 2011: Devil's Beef Tub

Today's the day ........................ to take to the hills

The weather was wild and stormy as we drove past the Devil's Beef Tub on our way home through the Scottish borders today.

The Beef Tub is a 500-ft deep, dramatic hollow in the hills north of the Scottish town of Moffat. It's formed by four hills - Great Hill, Peat Knowe, Annanhead Hill, and Ericstane Hill and is one of the two main sources of the River Annan. Its unusual name derives from its use by the Border Reivers, namely the Johnstone clan, known to their enemies as 'devils', to hide stolen cattle.

In his novel Redgauntlet, novelist Walter Scott described it as looking as if "four hills were laying their heads together, to shut out daylight from the dark hollow space between them. A damned deep, black, blackguard-looking abyss of a hole it is".

To get some idea of the scale of it - the tiny white dots that you can just about see - are sheep ................

• FinePix JZ510:
• f/5.2:
• 1/160":
• 14.0mm:
• ISO 100

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