by thedonalds » Sun Sep 13, 2020 2:27 pm
A little something that might be of interest. The ascent of Broad Law by way Glenheurie Rig was a favourite of Professor Veitch (1829–1894) Professor of Logic at the University of St Andrews & Glasgow, a Peebles man and author of several books on The Borders and the SMC website has a record of one such day, which seems very like yours.
“According to arrangement, the Club met at the Crook Inn, Tweedsmuir, on Friday the 27th February (1891). On Saturday morning, about a quarter before ten, three Members and a friend—Professors Ramsay and Veitch; Mr Hugh Smith, Langside; and Dr Thomas H. Bryce, Glasgow—started for the ascent of the Broadlaw. The day was very windy and lowering, and the clouds lay dark on the highest tops. The route was up the Heystane Burn, to where it divides, and then up the Glenheurie Rig, the long slope which lies between the Glenheurie Burn and the upper grain of the Heystane Burn. The highest summit of Broadlaw (or Braidalb), 2,754 feet, was reached in a little over an hour and a half. The mist on the top was so dense that there was absolutely no view”.
I have done Broad Law on numerous occasions over the years and if my companions were new to the hill I occasionally used to try to fool them with ‘magic’. If we were lucky a plane would fly over while we were near the top and by waving my walking pole at it and exclaiming “Abracadabra” the plane would, as if by magic, heel over and turn about 20 degrees east. It usually took folk about 30 seconds to figure out what was going on…….
