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Well it is goodbye 2022, we didn't exactly go out with a bang, our Plan A was to head north to Glen Lyon but the recent weather and snow further north planted seeds of doubt. So rather than head north & then have to turn around we (Parminder & I) opted to head south for an easy day. George was unavailable as he is planning to celebrate and suffer tomorrow, so I suggested we tackle a quad of Marilyn's that George & I did in 2018, Parminder was even more excited as all four hills have trigs on the summits.
As most readers will be perusing this at a much later date, here is a photo of Halbeath on the outskirts of Dunfermline taken on 30th Dec 2022 which kind of highlights the amount of rain that Scotland endured, almost 24 hours non stop.
Black Hill route, same as my last visit
Luckily we don't have to walk across this field, not sure there is much grass to eat
Black Hill from the layby
Confirms we are heading in the right direction
Parking area
Looking back
Black Hill, we would be walking the other side of the hedge on the left
The way ahead
Sneaky look at our next target, Eildon Mid Hill
Get closer to the real ascending
Looking back
We started by following this good track but it goes the scenic route, so we opted to go directly up to the left
Concentrating
Eildon's, also shows the angle of ascent
Looking down to the start from our lofty position
I have to apologise for the lack of photo 's on the summit of Black Hill as my wife phoned me just before we reached the summit. As she is in Australia for a few weeks I couldn't really hang up, so all the summit photo's are taken with my camera which meant multi tasking and as we all know - men aren't very good at that!
Summit trig on Black Hill
Eildon's
Descending now
Eildon Mid Hill, different start point
The way ahead, we parked in a layby at the entrance to Melrose Golf Club
Clubhouse, not the biggest
Our target peeking through the trees
We take the right fork
Very slippy small wooden bridges over swollen burns
Looking back to Melrose after gaining a wee bit of height
Melrose, with Galashiels to the left
New holiday chalets
Apparently they sleep 4 and have a hot tub
Eildon North
The way ahead for us, we opted for the path to the left, more direct and steeper, we descended on the other path
Melrose zoomed
Eildon north again
Plenty of paths to choose from
Looking down on Eildon south
Small lochan/pond or whatever they are called in the Borders
New houses on the west side of Melrose
Summit trigs on Eildon Mid Hill
Eildon South
Melrose
Galashiels our next target Meigle Hill is just to the left with masts on the summit
Looking west
Meigle Hill, completely different route
Looking across to the Eildon's from the parking area
Parking spot
This is not the way ahead, you need to be on the other side of the barbed wire fence
The way ahead
Nice little abode
The Eildon's with Galashiels in the foreground
Looking down on Galashiels after gaining a bit of height
Surprising that we haven't seen too many wind turbines
Nearly at the summit
Our first bit of white stuff
Summit trig on Meigle Hill
In 2018 when I was last here there was a forest on the other side of the wall
Photo from 2018
Looking westish from the summit
The large cairn which for some reason is on the other side of the wall
The same cairn from 2018, I even climbed over the wall to take the photo
Sell Moor Hill, same route
After a satnav malfunction (no idea where it was wanting to take us after turning off in Stow, I resorted to memory and that worked a treat) we eventually parked in the layby for Sell Moor Hill
Standing Stane & a water feature
The water feature
Layby, not busy
The way ahead, not very inviting
Here is one 'Parminder' made earlier
The way ahead, this was after clambering over the wall, electric fence & barbed wire fence, we seemed to spend more time faffing around there than the rest of the walk
Here is a photo of the aforementioned wall & fences from 4 years ago. Trouble is you need to be on the other side of the wall to access the summit & trig
Looking back, Parminder not really enjoying this hill = 80m of ascent is too demanding
Plenty of water running downhill, summit still not in view yet
There it is
Not the most inspiring hill
A bumper haul of trigs today, 4 in one day is a new record
Time to head downhill, the weather was changing hence we had jackets on, even though no rain was forecast
A very enjoyable day and one strange fact, all 4 hills have parking areas - which is very rare especially for the wee hills.
Well farewell 2022, let's hope 2023 is better, hopefully we can help Parminder compleat and I can finish round 2 at the same time. Considering I really struggled up the majority of the hills it turned out to be quite a productive year 45 days out isn't bad with 87 hills climbed, almost 600km walked and just over 33,000ft of ascent.
Unfortunately as we all know the way the NHS is heading getting health problems rectified or treated is a very slow process, I still find it amazing that I have had, X-rays, CT scan, ECG, lung function tests, blood tests, a 3 month course of steroids and I am yet to actually see a doctor. Rant over.
All the best for the coming year to everyone on Walk Highlands.
