Cademuir Hill and White Meldon

[jgregor]

This was the Sunday morning that the clocks had gone back. I decided to ignore that and head out when I would have done, meaning I was effectively an hour earlier than I normally would have been. My aim to get to the half-way point in the Donald count by the end of the year (6 to go) was thwarted for this week by the rain and high-winds forecast - so a couple of subs would be all I'd be prepared to commit to. The plan was to follow the WH figure-8 route up Cademuir Hill, then tack on White Meldon on the way home to Edinburgh.

Cademuir Hill

Arriving at the Cademuir Hill car park at the back of 8am, I set off on the lovely woodland path up through the Tweed Valley Forest Park. It was overcast, but the rain stayed off. It was pretty windy at the top, blowing over my nearly full water bottle on the summit picnic table. I'm sure it would have been even worse up on Dun Rig (which I had been considering for today) over 300m higher. Off the top, the wind wasn't bad at all, and it made for an easy but pleasant hill walk.

At the crossroads

Red squirrel

Summit cairn and picnic table

Looking north over Peebles

Looking south-west towards the valley of the Manor Water

Looking south over Crookston and up into the higher hills around Dun Rig

Heading down round the east side of Cademuir Hill

Back at the crossroads

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White Meldon

A short drive back through Peebles and along the back road to Eddleston got me to the car park at the public toilets (now closed due to "antisocial behaviour"). The area is clearly used for camping and camper-vans, with evidence of a camp fire across the road at the foot of White Meldon. There was also a fair bit of litter around. I filled a Tesco bag with rubbish and put it in the boot of the car for later disposal - no bins around. I then crossed the Meldon Burn over the small bridge, and headed up the hill. It was a shorter walk than Cademuir Hill, but steeper, and with rougher paths through the bracken and heather. The views at the top were very good, despite it still being overcast. It's position means that there were views north to the Pentlands, south to the higher Borders hills, and a few other familiar hills round about.

A fairly easy and pleasant couple of walks, and was back for lunch early for once!

Bridge over Meldon Burn

Meldon Burn

Path up White Meldon

Looking back over the road to Black Meldon

Nearly at the top

White Meldon cairn and trig point

Looking north towards the Pentlands

Looking south

Looking over to the windfarm on Bowbeat Hill

Heading down - car visible in the distance in front of Black Meldon

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