Dun Rig Horseshoe

[Gordie12]

Mrs Gordie12 arranged to meet a friend in Dunbar, they hadn't met in person for over a year so with a lot of catching up to do I decided to tag along and do some hills.

For some strange reason (possibly age related) I had it in my head that this walk was near Moffat and so having checked Google (the night before) I knew the drive would be just under 3 hours. It wasn't until 5 minutes before we were due to leave that I realised we were going to Peebles and that the journey would be an hour quicker than I had expected so there was no rush on the journey down. I reckoned Mrs G would be about 3hrs to Dunbar and back and with about 2.5 hrs in Dunbar that would give me 5.5 hrs for this walk which seemed about right.

Now that I was looking for Glen Road in Peebles the Garmin found our destination (the night before I had been cursing the Garmin for being useless but of course it turns out that it was me that was useless) and we found the starting point easily.

I started my walk a few minutes after 11am, a warm morning with very little in the way of a breeze but the possibility of thundery heavy showers later in the day.

The end of Glen Rd and the start of my walk

An easy flat start through some woods then after crossing the Haystoun Burn the path starts to climb and is quite steep in places.

Looking back towards Peebles (or Moffat?)

Fairly quickly I was out of the trees and on open hillside with the views starting to open up around me. Coming out of the woods on the steeper parts of the climb I was aware of a really tight calf muscle that felt like it could ping at any moment so I slowed down and reduced my stride length to try and make life easier. At the point where I could either climb over Craig Head or detour round the side I went for the latter option to see if I could walk off the pain on more even ground.

Nice grassy path round Craig Head

Having circled Craig Head the two paths met at a gate and there was then a short steep climb followed by a long section of path climbing very gradually towards Kirkhope Law. The heather was starting to flower and the hill was alive with busy bees.

Looking towards Kirkhope Law

Looking back

A zoomed Peebles (or Moffat)

A small patch of sunshine in Glensax

After Kirkhope Law and having just passed a gate and good path on my left the climb of Birkscairn Hill begins in earnest. By now the pain in my calf has gone and i'm back to walking normally. The large stone cairn at Bircscairn Hill was a wasp meeting point so having touched the top of the cairn I moved away a few yards and had a 5 minute breather before heading on towards Dun Rig.

Large cairn at Birkscairn Hill

Dun Rig ahead

Peat hags ahead

Follow the fence to the top of Dun Rig

Dry now but after a period of rain???

The walk over to Dun Rig was straightforward. The patch of peat hags on Dun Rig could not have been drier and i was able to follow the path straight through them and so was quickly at the top where I met a couple of ladies doing the walk in the reverse route from me. We started chatting but very quickly moved on as the midge had arrived in numbers.

Top of Dun Rig

Leaving the summit of Dun Rig and still following the fence line I headed towards Glenrath Heights. As I veered round towards GH I lost the path but the ground was firm and the grass short so it was easy walking to pick up the path further on and complete the climb on to Glenrath Heights.

Glenrath Heights ahead

Back towards Dun Rig

I passed by the small cairn at Glenrath Heights but didn't really pay it much attention as I was heading for my 3rd Donald of the day (Stob Law). At this point I should mention that whilst focused on my route I clearly wasn't thinking about the hills I was climbing otherwise I would have realised I was already at the top of my 3rd Donald. So onwards I headed for my 3rd (4th) Donald of the day. There seemed to be a fair old descent down and a steep climb to get to the top of Stob Law but it didn't take that long to complete although the return did tire the legs a bit.

Stob Law ahead

Small cairn on Stob Law

The reascent - at least the gradient was consistent

Back on Broom Hill it was a straight walk following the line of a fence to what I thought was my 4th Donald of the day Hundleshope Heights. By now the clouds were gathering and there were drops of rain in the wind but nothing worth bothering about. The final climb to the cairn and trig point was very easy with little ascent and I stood at the top trying to figure out how this justified being a Donald but hey, what do I know?

Small cairn on Hundleshope Heights

Trig point on Hundleshope Heights

So with my 4th Donald completed (which wasn't a Donald) I took a bearing of east north east and headed down the pathless slope (there could be one but I never saw it). After a couple of hundred yards I picked up a track that headed past some grouse butts and descended down to Dead Side. This turned out to be a really nice path with good views ahead and to either side. I passed an old ruin before reaching a gate to a walled group of fir trees. This was where I had to turn right and follow an indistinct grassy path steeply down to link up with the track in Glensax. This could probably be tricky in wet weather but in the dry was easy enough if a bit steep.

Looking down towards Dead Side

Looking back up the track

Back on level ground - Glensax

Once back on the track in Glensax it was a flat walk back to the car. By the time I finished the rain had got a lot heavier but it was actually nice to walk in after the heat of the day.

At the car I popped out the contact lenses and put my glasses on to find that my vision was completly blurred. Mrs Gordie12 drove home and stopped off at Kinross services where I switched to my prescription sunglasses and my vision was perfect. So glasses I had worn just two days previously and were perfect I now couldn't see out of but the same prescription sunglasses were perfect and I now know my spare glasses are also OK (went to my optician this morning and she is baffled but will get back to me).

It was only when I was preparing to do this report that I realised my mistake from yesterday and I only found out as I was searching for Hundleshope Heights on WH to tick it off and couldn't understand why it wasn't listed in the Donalds section (I have no idea why I had this in my head from the outset of the walk).

Despite being clueless about which hill was or wasn't a Donald this was a really good walk and it's another 5 for the price of 4 in the Borders (this Graham/Donald combo business is growing on me)

Oh what a muppet I am

[Fife Flyer]

Nice one Gordie, done that round twice and really enjoyed it both times.

Once the winter approaches we will be heading south to get amongst the Donald's again.

[Gordie12]

Hi FF

I'm trying to get round a few while they are nice and dry!!

[Graeme D]

Mrs Gordie12 arranged to meet a friend in Dunbar, they hadn't met in person for over a year so with a lot of catching up to do I decided to tag along and do some hills.

I like your style! Trying to think if Mrs D has any friends in Dunbar that are due a visit!

[Gordie12]

Mrs Gordie12 arranged to meet a friend in Dunbar, they hadn't met in person for over a year so with a lot of catching up to do I decided to tag along and do some hills.

I like your style! Trying to think if Mrs D has any friends in Dunbar that are due a visit!

Hi Graeme

Being as diplomatic as I can be on a public forum I could probably add that Mrs Gordie12 has an unrivalled ability to chat so although I ended up taking 6 hours for the walk I still arrived back at my starting point before her

[rockhopper]

Enjoyed that. These hills and many others down here make for some good rounds. Think I used a bike for part of the way due to shorter daylight hours in winter. Maybe revisit in winter - cheers

[Gordie12]

Enjoyed that. These hills and many others down here make for some good rounds. Think I used a bike for part of the way due to shorter daylight hours in winter. Maybe revisit in winter - cheers

Hi RH

That's 3 trips down this way in the last couple of months and I've enjoyed each day. I've probably had all these hills at their driest which has made life a fair bit easier as well.