The Lade Braes

      Today was a wonderfully sunny day, so we opted to walk into town along the Lade Braes.   This is an ancient "close" or footpath that runs between the walls leading in and out of town.  It winds past parts of the town's old defensive wall, crosses Bridge Street and becomes a tree-lined hillside that follows the course of a gentle stream dotted with ponds filled with ducks.  "Lade" is water and "braes" means hillsides.  As we followed this path from our house into town we also passed a medieval mill and doocot or dovecot that dates back to the 1500s.  The doocot is the building that the doves lived in before the friars ate them.