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Needing a not-too-strenuous walk, Euan picked the Dun Rig Horsehoe above Peebles. It was a shooting day, we discovered, presumably pheasant, so as we approached on foot after parking up at the layby, men in camo were gathering with guns and dogs. Not a great start, but we did eventually rise above. Put me in mind of Eric Ashby, cameraman for BBC Natural History programmes in the '60s. He never wore camouflage.
001 Nuff saidAnyway, as we walked - deciding to go anti-clockwise, in case aches, pains or aged P duties forced an escape - we passed the turn up to the right on the WH route, and set off up a bit further on. Sheep welcomed us, as buzzards and pigeons flapped and soared overhead.
002 Anticlockwise along the Haystoun Burn 
003 Grouse butts on Old Drove Road 
004 Inquisitive blackfaces and pigeon 
005 Sheep 
006 Top we should have come up Looking back down Glensax afforded us - with a bit of magnification - a good view of the Peebles Hydro.
008 Peebles Hydro 
009 Newby Kipps left and down Glensax 
010 Down our ridge to Upper Newby We were on Dead Side now, with more sun than forecast, and grouse all around. We'd passed lots of enclosed pheasant nurseries on the way, and a sprinkling of blue feed-bins. Here on Dead Side we could see shoot-managed heather. It was all pretty depressing really, in spite of the sun. Up we went, and arrived at the summit then trig on Hundleshope Heights (685m and 682m respectively).
011 Understandably watchful red grouse 
014 Off go the others 
015 Butts and snow 
019 From top to trig on HH 
020 Eastish 
021 Moss on the trig At this point we had a chat about whether we were doing the full 14 miles - and potential late return to the aged Ps - or whether E wanted to drop down to the glen. After a checking-in phonecall, we carried on. Soon we were above the grouse butts and into the peat hags. And breathe.
022 First peat hags on way to Broom Hill 
024 Plucky little fir 
025 Over Windy Neese to Horsehope cleuchs It was pretty glorious up here.
We dropped down from Broom Hill and Middle Hill, down the Glenrath Heights to the unnamed 713m top of the valley head. Then the Dun Rig trig came in sight at 742m - with a teasing patch of gotcha-bog to cross between us and it.
026 Final boggy hurdle to Dun Rig trig
027 East to the Dowie Dens o Yarrow 
028 West to our Hundleshope Heights We'd passed three runners by this time, coming the other way, bouncing through the peat hags in their superhuman way. All very nice-seeming folk. All around us was cloud. Not enough for a dramatic inversion, but certainly enough for us to feel lucky that we seemed to be in our own sunny upland patch.
030 Walking in our tonsure of blue And down beneath our feet, the flora was much more interesting and cheerful-looking up here.
031 Moss pixie cups and no butts We'd brunched briefly at the first trig, so we just had a hot drink up here. That was pretty much all the ascending for the day, and very gentle it had been too. Next came an even more gentle down and up along the fence-line to Stake Law (681m) with its substantial cairn and sage-green moss looking pretty wonderful in the sunshine.
032 Bagging the peat hags to Stake Law 
033 The other side of the horseshoe 
034 Sage green moss at Stake Law cairn Dropping down from Stake Law, and anticipating the unlikely signpost to Craig Douglas (after which the singer seems to have been named), and the Dowie Dens, we spotted ten ravens.Hm, 'Craig Douglas and the Decimal Ravens' - not a bad name for a group, I thought, as I looked back to see Euan lit with a shaft of sunlight through the gathering murk.
035 Eight of the Decimal Ravens 
036 Birkscairn Hill ahead 
037 How Craig Douglas got his name 
038 Glory be At Birkscairn Hill, there was the cairn right enough, but no birks (except me). Euan caught up, and we walked on over Yellow Mire Hill (great name). When we got to near the corner of the forestry and looked up at the Drove Road, we decided there was no more up and down in one of our pairs of legs, and took the zigzag behicle track down into the glen for the 2.5 mile or so walk back out.
039 Birkscairn Hill cairn 
041 Contemplating Old Drove Road 
043 Taking the zigzag descent 
044 Burn curves looking vertical 
045 Larch cones before bridge