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After watching the weather closely all week, Friday looked like the best option to nip out and be back home in time for lunch
The plan was to pop down to the Pentlands and in the small time window East Cairn Hill was my obvious target
After reading all the reports and there are many starting at varying different points, I checked the map and decided to head down through Balerno on the A70 and park in a car park that was marked on my OS map
However, best laid plans and all that, the car park wasn't what you would call "well advertised", I knew roughly where it was and still went past it. Ended up pulling in a bit further up the road and the car park was sign posted 700m in the direction I had come from
Anyway found it after that wee bit of help. Spaces for about 10 cars if everyone is considerate (like me), failing that 8 at most, as I was there before 9am I had the pick of spaces
The forecast had been OK but when I got out of the car it didn't look too clever at all, the Pentlands were covered in lowish cloud
- Car park - looks bigger in the photo
- The start of the walk
- The sign of things to come, squelch, squelch
- Nice little bridge
Left the car park at 9 sharp and as you follow the path which is marked with marker posts at strategic points, East Cairn Hill can be seen as the big lump on the left, the right hand hill is thoughtfully names West Cairn Hill
As this walk was just a little romp and the weather was 'changeable' I only managed to take 35 photo's, the good thing about that is that I don't need to use Flickr just yet
I have had a look at how to post photo's using that facility but being a bit of a technophobe, it has been left for another day
It was just a matter of following the path which involved picking my way through various depths and degrees of bogginess
The "Friends of the Pentlands" and the land owners had laid umpteen old railway sleepers at some of the worst boggy areas, this must have been quite a challenge. Wooden sleepers are fine in nice dry weather but when they are wet or frosty they are rather slippy, so great care was taken
- An example of the railway sleepers
The path goes up past Harperrig Reservoir and heads up to the bealach between the two lumps, however I wasn't going as far as the bealach and turned off to the left and headed uphill following another path. This was the first real uphill bit and it wasn't too long before I was warming up quite nicely
- Harperrig Reservoir - low level view
Just before reaching the higher ground near the summit, the ground was starting to turn white underfoot, nothing substantial. The big problem was it was soft and hid the soft ground underneath, so greater care was taken, otherwise it was mud up to the ankles
The large cairn marking the lower top of East Cairn Hill was reached and it really is one the biggest cairns I have seen, not quite sure why the lower top should have such a huge construction
The cairn provided a bit of shelter from the wind and snow/sleet showers that were whizzing through, and on a couple of occasions I was quick enough to get a few photo's when the cloud broke up. However the trek across the summit was no fun at all, soft slushy snow, a well trodden path over very boggy ground - YUK
Visibility at this time was about 10m and I was hoping the path would lead me to the summit
I checked my phone when I started descending as I was very becoming suspicious that I had passed the summit and my suspicions were confirmed
So I retraced my footprints in the snow and set off back to the car
Here are a few photo's, not the best I have taken but the photo opportunities were very rare
- The middle of the cairn
- Close up of my new lighter rucksack - note the snow flakes on same
- Looking back to the path
- Harperrig Reservoir from on high
- Monster cairn, looked much bigger in reality
- Northern Pentlands
- Edinburgh, Firth of Forth and the Kingdom
- And finally - another shot of the monster
Descent was easy and straightforward and was back at the car in less than 3 hrs, never saw another human being, however there was another car in the car park
It won't go down as my favourite day in the hills, but I still enjoyed the fresh air and the occasional view
Off out tomorrow Mayar & Dreish again, this time hopefully with snow, may even try out my crampons, so watch this space
