Mendick Hill, quickie south of Edinburgh

[gld73]

I'd stayed in Edinburgh overnight and had to be in Carlisle just after lunch, so it didn't leave much time to take advantage of the unseasonably good weather which had appeared. Had a quick look at this site for ideas for a sub-2 hour walk and settled on Mendick Hill, a nice wee marilyn with practically no detour from the A702. There are a few ways up/down this hill, but the route I took was:

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I parked in the rough layby just before the West Linton Golf Course entrance and started the walk alongside the golf course for a short distance, Mendick Hill clearly visible. At the track junction, I took the rougher left branch to follow the old roman road, helpfully signed to Mendick Hill

As I needed to make sure I wasn't late arriving in Carlisle, I took what was maybe the shortest route to the hill from where I'd parked (thanks to justdrums walk report who described this route as their descent, gave it a thumbs up) - just after passing through this open gate on the track after a strip of trees, I left the track and headed up towards a gate and gap in the trees (top right of this picture)...

...the gap in the trees led to another gate, shown here (had to be climbed as it was chained shut) and some marshy ground in parts as I headed to the hill

One more gate to climb or go through and from there a worn path headed clearly up the hill to the summit

The summit of Mendick Hill is a lovely spot, with a memorial bench to savour the views. It had only taken 45 mins (just a bit under 3km) for me to get to the top; I think I'm so used to usually using the Landranger 1:50,000 maps that with my Pentlands one being an Explorer 1:25,000 I do walks there twice as fast as I subconsciously expect :))

View back to the north. Beautiful conditions for hill walking, though this wee 'un was all I'd be doing today

With more time, I'd have stopped off to do Black Mount a little further south along the A702 too, but it's a nice option for another occasion when I'm short of time

I took a different route down, following a trodden path south initially, but then veering down the steep slopes more directly towards to the strip of trees on the left to take me back to the roman road

Looking back at Mendick Hill as I reached the roman road, from where it was an easy walk along the track back to the car. I'll happily do this hill again sometime when passing, maybe trying one of the other routes up for variation.