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The usual story - for various reasons, I only had one day free for walking in October, nae pals free on said date, and the weather forecast was pants, with high winds almost everywhere, and heavy rain in most bits of Scotland too
. Sadly, Munros were therefore looking out of the question. However, on closer inspection, it looked as though the Lothians would miss nearly all the rain (although not the wind!), so I thought I might just go for a long amble round the Pentlands. As a native Ayrshireman and subsequent naturalised Weegie, doing a walk this close to Edinburgh was admittedly a bit outside my comfort zone, but I thought I could grit my teeth and bear it for one day
...
On perusal of the SMC "Corbetts & Other Scottish Hills" book, I found a route mentioned that takes in all three of the northernmost S2K Marilyn summits of the Pentlands, starting from Flotterstone, so I decided to have a look at that.
Flotterstone is certainly well kitted out for walkers, with a grand big car park complete with Regional Park Info Centre and everything - very handy
. I set off up the track and then followed the signposted path off to the left, heading up the west flanks of Turnhouse Hill. The weather doesn't look too bad in the photo below, but in fact it was blowing a gale!
It didn't take too long to Turnhouse Hill summit, which has a surprisingly big cairn. Driving sleet by this point, but at least the Clag was staying clear of the tops.
After a slight dip, the good ongoing path rises again to the next hill to the west, Carnethy Hill, with its huge cairn. Apparently this dates back to the Bronze Age, so say various hillwalking guides, leaving me wondering (as for other supposedly Bronze Age cairns such as Tinto's) how on earth anyone can conclusively date a big pile of stones on top of a hill. It kind of leaves me with a mental picture of some recently discovered cave painting featuring a couple of artful deer, a stick man brandishing a spear, and "Our Route" scrawled underneath
...
From here, the path descends west to a bealach (is it permissible to say "bealach" this close to Edinburgh
?), and then makes the final ascent to Scald Law, the highest point in the Pentlands no less, and the first of this route's three Subs.
It was very wet & windy up at the trig point, but at least the Clag just about stayed off and there was a nice hazy view out over the Firth of Forth, with the rounded bulk of Black Hill (the next S2K Marilyn) taking up the foreground.
I made the brief optional detour to South Black Hill, which is basically just Scald Law's south top. It has a nifty big stone shelter, so I stopped briefly for an apple and a drink of water.
The path continues westwards towards East and West Kip.
On the ascent of East Kip, there was an interesting view out north over Hare Hill and Black Hill, with the steep defile between the two - apparently known as "the Green Cleugh" although not marked on the OS Landranger map - being very prominent from here. I was going to have to cross that later on, and it looked a bit of an obstacle from this angle...
Getting a bit bushed by now: time for a Kip? {Bad Pun Alert
}
The weather was improving by now, although still very breezy, and there was a lovely panorama of the whole northern Pentlands from the summit of West Kip.
I descended west from West Kip to the bealach with Green Law, and then turned north - on an excellent track - across the low ground between the two main parallel Pentlands ridges, to reach the north ridge on the western flanks of Hare Hill. The main track headed off northwards, but a fainter grassy ATV track to the right ascended towards Hare Hill summit, so I followed it.
Hare Hill has rather odd summit environs, with three small separate cairns - quite cute, although I've no idea why three when most hills are content with one.
Black Hill was to be next up. Pleasingly enough, it really lives up to its name, being heather-clad and therefore much darker than the grassy slopes of all the other Pentlands. It is a big rounded lump of a thing, but nevertheless it is a surprisingly well defined hill with low cols on either side, and it would hopefully be the second Sub of my route. This view of it is from one of Hare Hill's summit cairns.
A faint path continued all the way from Hare Hill summit to make the fairly steep descent into the dreaded Green Cleugh. I crossed the big track that runs north-south through the Cleugh, and then tackled the scree slope on the far side to gain a higher, fainter ATV track running NE-wards around the flanks of Black Hill.
A faint path cut uphill towards a line of fencing, and after ascending to the right of the fence for a bit, another side path branched off left through a gate to eventually arrive at Black Hill's pancake-flat summit environs. It took me a wee while to locate the cairn, but it was there right enough.
A good ATV track continued towards Bell's Hill, which is the next (grassy) hill to the east. By now, there were some nice views over Edinburgh below.
I didn't go all the way to Bell's Hill summit, as it was slightly off-route and didn't look terribly exciting anyway. I stopped for a late lunch near the top of Bell's Hill, and enjoyed the view back west to Black Hill with the two Kips in the distance.
I headed on eastwards over Harbour Hill, and down from there to the bealach with Capelaw Hill, where there was some attractive forestry around the Bonaly Reservoir.
The Clag had almost completely vanished by now, and the views continued to improve, although the wind was steadily picking up too - by the summit of Capelaw Hill, it was getting difficult to stay standing! At least there was a pleasant vista onwards towards Allermuir and Caerketton Hills for distraction
.
There was also a grand panorama over Edinburgh from here. (And it's probably worth pointing out that I could quite possibly get my Weegie Badge revoked for uttering the words "grand panorama over Edinburgh"
!)
I crossed another gritted track at the Capelaw/Allermuir bealach, and made the short ascent (on another good path) to Allermuir Hill's summit, which is graced with both a trig point and a viewpoint marker. The wind was very strong now, and I had to hold onto the viewpoint thingey to stay upwards while I took photos!
A good view out to the next Marilyn to the north, Arthur's Seat. Not for today, though!
Allermuir Hill really is a great viewpoint, and there was an excellent view back westwards over most of the rest of the Pentlands in the late afternoon sunshine.
I battled my way back down through the wind to the gritted track, enjoying more sunset views over the rest of the Pentlands.
From here it was a straightforward stoat down the track past the Roman (?) fort [I have to admit that I didn't stop to look at it thoroughly, as I'd probably have been blown away] to Castlelaw Farm, and then following the signed bypass path back westwards to Flotterstone.
Munros they certainly ain't, but the Pentlands proved to be surprisingly shapely hills (I'd reluctantly have to admit that they are better defined, and have better views, than Glasgow's Campsies) and this was a grand day's walking
. I was somewhat astonished to tote up that I'd done some 1400 metres of ascent, too - all those wee grassy hills add up, and many a mickle maks a muckle, as they say. Some useful exercise anyway!
