Walkhighlands

This route follows an old right of way that is marked by posts, which is just as well as I inadvertently left my carefully prepared map at home. It makes for a good short walk particularly on a clement winter's day with a covering of snow; in wet weather it can be very boggy and hard going. Unlike the east end of the Pentlands which is always very busy on winter weekends the west end, with its rolling hills and heather moorland, gets neglected and I didn't see another walker all day.

A nice wee walk! On a day like that winter is just lovely...

What a cracking wee report!

Dare I ask what a lang whang is?

What's the story behind the gravestone? Was this the site of a battle or execution?

Love the photo of the sheep

The Lang Whang is the local name for the stretch of the A70 between Balerno and Carnwath, that can be a lonely moorland road. I'm not sure of the derivation, but lang is Scots for long and, according to Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, whang is a bootlace, while Chambers Dictionary has whang as a thong, a thick slice, or even (vulgarly) a penis. So you get the idea, something long and thin! Perhaps a WH member can give a more authoritative
definition.

Moving swiftly on, the Covenanter's grave contains the remains of a person fatally injured in the battle of Rullion Green in 1666 and buried in secret. The headstone was erected in the 19th century. Rullion Green is further east in the Pentlands to the south east of Turnhouse Hill by the A702.

The grave is well worth visit and is usually walked from West Linton Golf Club. It can be quite hard to locate in clag, but lies on the line of two posts marking the old right of way, the problem being that from either post the other one is not visible. It is about 100m to the west of the flat top of Black Law.

I really enjoyed your report, the Pentlands are my local hills and I always like to see them on this site.

I dont know what a "lang whang" is but my dad, who played golf, used to speak about the Lang Whang hole on the Turnberry golf course. I think it meant you just had to hit the ball a very long way.

I was surprised to see the Covenanter's grave because thousands of Covenanters were murdered in the Pentlands and I would have thought there would have been mass graves all over the place, not just for one person. Over the years there were several horrible battles fought there, and to this day there is a field near Penicuik called the Shin Banes field, because the local farmer keeps on turning up human bones with his plough. There is also a burn called the Kill Burn, which at one time ran red with human blood. Oh dear.

The whole history of the Pentlands is horrible and I dont really want to know any more about it or think about these things when Im out there, I just like to think of them as they are today, a wild and windswept place where people come to escape the city for a few hours.