Rubers Law from the east

[McMole]

I parked on the minor road to the east of Rubers Law where field gates on either side of the road gave enought room for parking without obstructing access (NT 5954 1546). This is also the start of a track that parallels the road heading south for 170m then turns to climb gently towards the summit between hedges with fields full of sheep and further on some cattle to either side.

Walking up the track directly towards the summit

It continues after a dogleg through a gate up beside a strip of trees. I followed the path through another gate into the field to the south still heading straight uphill.

Looking back at my ascent route

This led me up steeper bracken covered slopes to where I had a short stop for a snack just after (as I later discovered) I crossed a path which would have led me to a gate through the wall I was shortly to climb. A short ascent then over that wall joined a path from the north along to the trig point.

Shower approaching from the south

A black cloud was slowly blowing over the summit from the south and I could see a shower gradually approaching.

View north to the Eildon Hills

The trig point has a Borders Exploration Group plaque on one side and a circular indicator plate on top with local places and hills named with their distances. The countries visited by BEG international expeditions are named with their distances and year just inside the perimeter of the plate.

Plaque on trig point pillar

Indicator

Nearby a basalt column has a plaque placed by the local parishes in 2000.

View SE from trig point with plaque visible on basalt column.

The plaque

From the summit area I followed a path south then east into a shallow gully and steeply down to a gate hanging by a single hinge through the surrounding dry stone dyke.

My approach route up the centre of the photo and my descent path heading to the left just after the gate

A reasonably well-used path led from there to cross my ascent route and then follow the north side of the fields I'd passed by on their south on my way up.

The path heading through now very wet bracken

As I did so the promised rain arrived. My kagool kept my top dry for the few minutes it lasted, but the path then headed on through dripping bracken that soon soaked my trousers.

The gate and direction indicator post I found on my way down

One of the signposts

About 1km from the gate there was another gate with better hinges and a direction post, then a couple of signposts pointing back to Rubers Law as the path joined a good track heading down through the forest to the road about 400m from my start point and my car.

The track on the right that was my descent route and opposite the entrance to West Lees.

The signposts indicate that this must be an 'approved' route, but there is a certain lack of car parking at the start of the track and a locked barrier to prevent vehicular access, so I'd still favour my starting point and uphill route with a slight change to use the gate instead of climbing the wall.

[Stefan1]

Nice snaps, pleasant countryside!