A nice warm spring day welcomed us today, a fairly stiff breeze at times but in the sheltered places lovely and warm. Today we headed into Lockerbie, I guess out of morbid curiosity really, even though it host’s Scotland’s largest lamb marketmost of us just know of it because of the wreckage, after the horrific terrorist bomb attack on Pan Am flight 103 on 21st December 1988, landing across the town. This tragic moment resulted in the loss of life of all 259 on board the flight and 11 residents of Lockerbie as debris scattered far and wide.

From the centre of town we followed the Annandale Way, a walking route following the river Annan for 56 miles from Moffat to the sea at Annan. The footpath took us through woodland and open farmland.

We passed and called in at Lockerbie cemetery to visit the memorial garden and pay our respects to all those families, whose lives will never fully recover.

We stopped in at the visitor centre to learn about the disaster and how the community pulled together in its wake and admire this wonderful quilt titled ‘lest we forget’. With 259 leaves on the tree depicting those on Flight 103, 11 pebbles – the residents lost and the tree underpinned by a strong root system, depicting the community pulling together and getting on with their lives – beautiful.Also the pretty tree lined avenue, each tree commemorating a life lost too soon, just bursting into new life, before continuing on our way.

A thought provoking 6.5 mile walk.

Two thoughts of the day:

As above really.