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Pt.1: Wester Craiglockhart (Fri-06-Apr-12 & most Fridays since)My daughter trains in Edinburgh on Friday evenings and through the winter I’d been pounding the streets around Colinton and Craiglockhart to while away the hour. On one of these evenings coming into spring I thought I could see the top of a hill through the gloom, behind the Redford Barracks, which appeared too close to be the Pentlands.
This piqued my interest as the routes I’d managed to do so far were very boring and had a look on WH and found the report on the Craiglockhart Hills. I was previously unaware of the existence of these hills or had, at least, forgotten Wester Craiglockhart as I had occasionally attended the Napier University campus here. Though it didn’t look like this then:
The following week, or soon after, I explored the first (Wester) of these two small hills, using the WH route description, turning right on to a track off Glenlockhart Road that runs alongside the university campus over the wall. The route involves entering the Merchants of Edinburgh golf course and, after a quick check to ensure I wasn’t about to be clouted, ran on following the route description which traverses the lower reaches of this wee hill. You’re gaining height all the time at this point, with views opening up to the Pentlands, and once around the back (South) of the hill, took the left track clearing the false summit and on to the trig.
I was in awe of the 360 degree panoramas around Edinburgh. It was almost dark and, in the half light, the city streetlights and car headlights were on, giving a fairly spectacular outlook. Because of this, I spent longer up there than I had and needed to use the flashlight on my phone to help pick my way down the steep North side of the hill which was, by now, in virtual darkness. I missed a turn at this point that led to a bit of a dead-end and, just as I made to about-turn, a fox emerged from the gorse and crossed the path in front of me, no more than a few feet away. Retracing my steps, I was soon back on track and down to the path alongside the Uni…not before a slip that took all the flailing of my arms I could muster to avoid bum-sliding my way to the base of the hill. I was out of time and would have to leave Easter Craiglockhart hill for another time, not huge but so much more fun than pounding the pavements around there
(I’d struggle run up anything much bigger than this anyway). No photos on this visit but here’s some views from there, in all weathers
(mainly foul!), from subsequent weeks.
The castle of gloom...
North...
The Pentlands on a better day...
West...
Pt.2: Easter Craiglockhart (Fri-27-Apr-12 & most Fridays since)It was 2-3 weeks before the next opportunity to try out this route, due to Easter holidays and so on, but in between times I’d memorised the access / egress points, based on the info on the WH walk report, and reckoned would get me over both summits and back in time for return chauffeur duty.
So, set off and did Wester Craiglockhart hill again before crossing Glenlockhart Road and heading up again towards the next target. There’s quite a network of paths in here but managed to keep on up and eventually encountered a noticeboard showing where I was. Had it not been for this I would probably have missed my turn here and carried on along the more obvious path that would eventually have taken me down and away from the summit of Easter Craiglockhart hill. So, onwards and upwards before emerging from the banks of gorse, just shy of the summit. There are two bumps at the top here and not sure which is the summit but crossed them both, leaving the southernmost one to descend the hill, down past Craighouse and out through the exit of the grounds, returning again via Glenlockhart Road which runs between the two hills, also splitting the golf course, and back along Colinton Road.
I’ve since honed - I use the term loosely - this into a figure of 8 route that can be done in either direction and be comfortably back in 50-55mins without pushing it
(less if you’re not carrying 2-stone of excess baggage).I imagine this is a popular place for walkers, dog walkers and so on, offering great views for relatively little effort. I’ve done this regularly now for a few weeks and have encountered every conceivable weather condition in that time. Two weeks in a row in torrential rain, followed by one in the “heatwave” at the end of May
(that was the hardest by far) when my face took on a similar hue to that of my red t-shirt!
View back from Easter to Wester and on to the west end of the Pentlands...
...yes, that is ponding on the green at the golf course.
Arthur's Seat...
Meggetland and Corstorphine Hill...
