On many journeys north over the border, I have admired the red brick baronial style castle on the north side of the railway line after the train turns inland from Berwick. I established from Streetmap that I was looking at Ayton Castle, in private ownership and not generally open to the public. The two gentlemen from London who own the Castle have, however, opened a railway line in the grounds in and the Ayton Castle Railway now runs on occasional dates from the Eyemouth Road entrance to the Castle where there is a tea rooms with attractive railway ephemera.
Reston Station reopened for business on 23rd May 2022, and I combined a visit there and to Ayton Castle, on 27th August. The station is a minor stop on the East Coast Main Line and opened after a £20 million investment, replacing an earlier station that closed in 1964. The large car park never had more than ten cars in it, and many of those were using the electric charging points rather than connecting with trains.
If you take an irregular rail service and combine it with irregular bus service, surprise surprise that they do not connect up. I had given up waiting for the 253 at 1251 and set off on foot but met it at the other end of Reston village. Five minutes later I was in Ayton, walking up from the South Lodge to find the 101/4 in gauge railway for the short ride to Castle View Halt, and a pleasant chat with the lady in the tea rooms dispensing coffee and cake in the Station Buffet which is inside the Castle. The locomotive which plies the line is known as Lloyd and local volunteers keep the line running.
The line is not long at 500m and, with no access to the Castle on a tour, which I would have enjoyed, I walked back to the South Lodge. I was uncertain what to do in the remaining 4½ hours before my train direct back from Reston to Chester-Le-Street – a real treat when most trains from my local station run no further north than Newcastle. However, it is a long time from 1500 to 1942, and my best option seemed to be the Travelsure bus from Ayton to Duns, which is a small Scottish town I had not visited before. Unfortunately, I would only have twenty minutes from arrival to departure on the same and last bus.
So there was no time to have more than the briefest view of mostly closed shops and facilities. Duns is the home of the Jim Clark Motorsport Musuem, dedicated to the Formula 1 racing driver killed in 1968 after an illustrious career on the track, who came from the area.
I took the bus back to Auchencraw and spent a couple of hours in the pub, and booked a Pingo (a demand responsive bus service in Berwickshire) to run me back to Reston for the train. When these little buses run about with only one or two people, it’s difficult to conclude they are nothing different to a cheap taxi with more empty seats. It turned up on time such that back in Reston I walked alongside the Eye Water, and met a man testing out his new drone in his front garden.
I sat on the station platform until the direct train to Chester-le-Street came in (other stations are available). Sometimes it’s just a case of me making the journey, so you don’t have to.