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A quick moan before I start which follows on from "nxmjm" who walked the same route anti clockwise almost 10 years ago.
The title is a bit of a give away, whoever replaced the fence from Foulbrig almost to the west summit of Black Law left a right mess. The new fence is excellent, nice and sturdy (no barbed wire), surely all the new fence posts and wire would have been brought in on an ATV, so why was the old wire and posts not uplifted and disposed of in a safe manner? It isn't really a problem for us walkers as we tend to look where we place our feet all the time, especially on the general Borders terrain - animals that would be a different case. Most of the old wire is rusty and blends in with the tufty straggly grass and if an animal was in panic mode it would easily becoming tangled up - RANT over. There are a few photo's below that demonstrate the problem.
This would be my 3rd visit to these 2 hills, the good news is that this route is a completely different one, hence the post.
Parminder volunteered to drive and we met at Straiton at 7am and headed down the Moffat road and then down the side of Talla Reservoir.
Low level early morning shot of Megget Reservoir
The blurb in the car park
Looking east before the sun rises
Car park
Looking west along the single track road that takes you to Talla Reservoir and beyond
Parminder forgot his walking poles so had to dash back for them - essential piece of kit
Reservoir from the road, very calm
Megget Dam
Our cue to leave the tarmac and head uphill
The way ahead good track, which is an excellent way to gain height - gradually
Looking west
Looking back down on Megget Reservoir
Sun trying to peek out
The way up and ahead to Greenside Law
Greenside Law in the distance
Looking back, the sun appearing and making everything a nice shade of brown
There she is the big yellow thing in the sky
Time to leave the luxury of the track and head up to the summit of Greenside Law which is not what you would call a memorable summit - nothing to mark it at all. The terrain is pretty good by Borders standards and is less than 1km
Looking SW to the slightly bigger hills
Broad Law and it's impressive side
Megget Reservoir just about visible
Looking across to Black Law
Broad Law from the summit area of Greenside Law
Looking north
From the summit area of Greenside the faint path to the fence is fairly obvious
Parminder checking his emails
Great view north
Navigation is now a doddle, follow the fence all the way to Black Law
The first of the "debris" photo's
Admittedly it is quite a long fence to replace
Looking back, you can see the track that runs round Greenside and is now heading downhill
The gentle push up to the western top of Black Law at 696m
More debris
And more, I didn't take a photo of it all otherwise I would need a new SD card in my phone
And more
Looking back, the impressive side of Broad Law visible again
The fence takes a dog leg turn
Never seen this before and there were a couple of them. Knots in the wire, it was frosty hence the colour
We must have hopped over the fence more than half a dozen times to avoid this sort of stuff, luckily the fence is easily straddled and no damage done by us
Nice shiny new fence posts
More debris and much more hazardous
Looking NW
The west summit of Black Law. If anyone is planning to do these hills hop over the fence and stay on the SE side as the ground is much better
Heading towards the higher top of Black Law 698m
Hardly worth the extra walk
That is where we are heading next and the cloud is rolling in
Following the fence to the top of Conscleuch Head
Cairn on Conscleuch Head
The way ahead to the next Donald "top" of Deer Law
Luckily the mush was fairly firm
The finger cairn on Deer Law
Closer shot
Megget Reservoir
The way down for us
Wonder if they are still used?
The track we picked up at the bottom of the descent
A nice walk down to the road
Looking back up the track
St Mary's Loch just appearing
You would need a key first
A very enjoyable mornings walk, especially after last weeks soaking. The early start was one of my better ideas, the breeze did start picking up late morning as per the weather warning.
