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After two weeks out and about in cities, going to gigs it was quite a shock to the system to be up hills again! I visited London and Brighton on my own, then Allison joined me for gigs in Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol. An enjoyable time - lots of culture, good food and music. Now it was back to the hillside.
I had intended to head to the very border with England and do Windy Gyle along with some Simms and The Cheviot, but the forecast for high winds all weekend threw that idea into the bin. The southeast still seemed to be a bit better - well drier - than the rest of the country, so I thought we could head Peebles way and pick up some Donalds down there. There was, however, another gig to be attended on Thursday night: Steve Mason at St Lukes, so we couldn't leave until Friday morning. Probably just as well as I had no ideas where to camp down in that part of the world. My plan was the Dun Rig circuit on Friday, then an extended Drumelzier circuit including Dollar Law and various Donald Tops on Saturday into Sunday. We had a smooth run through Glasgow and arrived in Peebles before 10am, parking at the end of Glen Road - lots of dog walkers and joggers going about. We just followed the WH route as there's not too much in the way of mutability of this one - I guess you could continue out to Black Law if you were keen. Today was not going to be a day for being keen however - winds were ferocious and seemed against us much of the time, blasting in from the west.
We followed the old Drove Road for a while which took us smoothly up to Kirkhope Law. We paused before heading up Birkscairn Hill to try and have lunch in as sheltered a space as we could find - was pretty difficult to get out of the wind anywhere! By the time we reached the top of Stake Law we having to link arms to keep from being blown over, and at the top of Dun Rig we were both pinned against the wire of the fence, the wind was so strong. Very tiring fighting the wind all day - the traipse out and back to Stob Law was not pleasurable. Then it was a lengthy wander down the back of Hundleshope Heights, where thankfully the wind was on our back more than our fronts. It drizzled on and off for most of the day as well, so much fun was had! As we reached the floor of the glen our thoughts turned to finding a camping spot for the night, with dusk falling around us. There are some nice grassy spots along by the river, but too far away to return to the car for kit then walk back to. IN the end we found a sheltered and secluded spot in a small wood just south of Hog Bridge - I'm always a bit wary of using woodland camp spots in high winds and we did have a good look at the nearby trees by headtorch to evaluate whether we were likely to be squished in the night, but they appeared sound. Kept company by an ou=wl during the hours of darkness and emerged from the tent, surrounded by snowdrops, to find we were being scrutinised by a white horse in an adjacent field. Back to the car accompanied by the staccato drumming of a woodpecker.
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Al, on Flickr
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We drove along to Drumelzier, past Stobo Castle, and parked in the small car park area at the beginning of the walk. The forecast was for just as fierce winds today, so I had to recalibrate plans and give up on the idea of doing an overnighter - we'd just do the standard Drumelzier round plus the two Donald Tops on the circuit and leave Dollar Law and its buddies for a more clement day.
Several other walkers/ runners out as we set off, taking in the circuit clockwise. Good track underfoot as we headed past various sheepfolds and began to climb Den Knowes. Towards the top of Pykestone Hill we turned off to the north to reach The Scrape - there is something of an ATV track going out to it. Followed the fence line back to Pykestone, where the buffeting by the wind became worse. Some early sunshine was being replaced by dark clouds from the west, threat of rain. Middle Hill achieved, the out and back to Taberon Law, soggy underfoot for much of it. We got a bit discombobulated and started heading back to Grey Weather Law rather than Glenstivon Dod, requiring some tussock tramping to get back on track. Drumelzier Law looked high from here, but good path underfoot made the ascent straightforward. Somehow missed the track descending and had some more tussock tramping to find it again. Then a long walk off Logan Head and back into the valley. We'd spotted a red roofed shooting hut sheltered by some trees and thought that might make a good pitch spot. There's a very precarious bridge over to it, but there was a flat grassy spot within several old trees just behind the hut that would keep us sheltered for the night...once we'd cleared up the sheepshit that was... Back to the car to pick up the overnight bags and we got pitched as dusk was falling.
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A quiet night - no noise from the farm, no animals or birds, just the wailing of the wind high up and the occasional spatter of rain on the tent. We were quite late in getting up - Allison has developed a sleep pattern where she lies awake much of the night then goes to sleep about 5 or 6am, gets annoyed when I wake her up for breakfast...It was after 9 by the time we got packed away and set off back to the car, but it didn't really matter as we only had a short day planned.
Looking at what else needed done round these parts, I'd noticed Huddlestone was required, the other Donalds in the Culver Fell circuit having been done the requisite two (or three) times. Alas I hadn't been paying attention to Donald Tops - we both had several of the pesky blighters outstanding on that circuit. Winds as high as the last two days and rain didn't make for a big round to capture them today, so we stuck with the original plan to do Huddlestone on its own. Drove round to Coulter, where something big was on at the community hall. Passing up on the chance to explore, we continued round to Culter Allers farm where we parked and got ready once again.
Along the road for a mile or so, then up a firm farm track up Cowgill Rig, lots of heavily pregnant ewes tottering about in the fields. Sheltered from teh wind til we passed the plantation, then blown about again all the way to the summit. There's an ATV track that follows the fence line to the top of Huddlestone. On a better day it would have been easy to head to the wind farm track that leads to the two Donald Tops of Hillshaw Head and Coomb Dod but it was not a better day, indeed our appetite for being blasted by wind and rain was rapidly becoming jaded. We headed towards Culter Reservoir, finding an ATV track which took us part of teh way down Snowgill Hill then disappeared leaving us to stumble through tussocks towards the road at the bottom, sheep tracks providing some assistance. Once on the road it was just a simple walk back up to the car, although the wind was sometimes right in our faces sometimes right behind us, difficult to understand when we were walking due north the whole time, I guess it just depended on which route the wind took between the hills.
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It did feel good to be out and about again, even if we were blown to and fro by the wind for much of the time. Fingers crossed for next weekend...
