Ward Law and the Law Kneis obstacle course

[McMole]

Rain was being forecast to saunter in from the north-west so I changed my plan from Strathclyde and headed further south and east to a couple of Marilyns either side of Ettrick. It was predicted to remain dry till mid-afternoon there, so a ten o’clock start would, I thought, keep me dry. I parked in the Ettrick Willows car park a couple of hundred metres south of the road junction to Ettrick for my first hill – Ward Law.

Ward Law – 4.9km, 370m, 1.6hrs

Where the two roads leading from the B709 join to head up the Ettrick valley, a gate leads to a vague path that runs alongside the fence to another that doubles back to an ancient quarry.

From there I continued steeply uphill to avoid the sheep clustered to the east and promptly found plenty more as the gradient lessened. Nearing the summit I had a friendly chat with the farmer on his ATV as he returned from the far side of Ward Law where he’d been checking his cattle. He told me lambing was over with just one tardy ewe waiting until the previous week. The Jubilee Cairn on the summit was constructed for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. An impressive construction, it is clearly visible from hills miles away.

Looking across at Law Kneis from near the summit of Ward Law

As I returned I headed down the gentler slopes to the east of the quarry. One down and – or so I’d thought – a shorter stroll up Law Kneis to come.

With the 1:25,000 OS map and Google Earth agreeing that Law Kneis was blanketed by forest I had carefully studied both and decided that the obvious ascent route was up White Sike where the aerial view showed a wide break in the forest. An ascent of 150m would reach a forest road and across it other breaks in the forest appeared to lead easily to open moor near the summit.

My planned route

I should be able to do that and back again in not much more than an hour – or so I thought! I had noticed when looking at it from Ward Law that, not unusually, the maps and Google Earth were out of date. A large section of forest to the north of White Sike had disappeared.

Law Kneis – 5.2km, 280m, 1.9hrs

I drove the 1.4km to the Ettrick Marsh Tima car park – quite a bit larger that the Willows Car Park and again empty and began walking along the forest road. A few minutes later found me staring up White Sike and wondering where the path was.

White Sike on the right

After starting up what might have been an overgrown path I started to question if there ever had been one. I had the choice of rampant vegetation up the Sike or stumps and brashings where the forest had been. It was slow going, and with the bracken still only waist high it can only become more challenging as it grows.

Looking down White Sike

Almost at the forest road

It took perhaps 50% longer than I had expected to reach the forest road. Once over it, the next section through the forest didn’t look much better. It was, however, not as steep and a shallow groove through the vegetation showed that feet do occasionally wander along it.

The narrower break above the forest road

Gatecleuch Hill ahead.

With the adjacent trees stretching their branches across it and plenty of self-sown saplings it wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a walk in the park. As it passed the summit of Gatecleuch Hill the break started to descend and I reached the junction on the right that was to lead me to the summit.

A carpet of self-sown conifers.

This presented a series of obstacles – fallen trees. Fortunately none of them presented much difficulty. The first few could be walked under, the next few walked past and the last avoided by a short diversion into the forest.

Fallen trees ahead - just duck under the trunks

Easily passed on the right.

Looking back at the toppled trunks.

The edge of the forest and the remains of its surrounding fence then came into view and a short stumble through knee deep heather and ruts arrived at what appeared to be the highest point. This was within a few metres of a young pine growing by the fence line.

Law Kneis summit area

I didn’t hang around long and retraced my steps to the forest road. Curious if there was a better route down than White Sike, I walked north along the road, but found nothing except good views of Ward Law and a bench seat and cairn.

Ward Law from the forest road

I continued along the road all the way to the car park listening to the trees creaking in the strong breeze and wondering just how many were going to fall during the next storm. That added a mile to my return journey, and, as I neared the car, the first shower of the day arrived at 1:55PM.