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My monthly visit to the Borders on my way home from Cheshire, I opted to visit Pikethaw & Wisp as they eluded me last month due to rather wet feet. Once again I have to thank Inca as I loosely followed his route.
With these 2 hills now ticked off I only have 2 hills left on the east side of the A74.
The title of this WR is not quite as dramatic as it sounds, I did need to open my First Aid kit and will explain why later.
The forecast was favourable and the weather turned out as predicted. Yet again my new (ish) boots did the job as the ground was damp and the bracken which is starting to die back but was still above knee high - and there was plenty of it, both on the ascent and the descent. If it was in full bloom it would definitely be very challenging.
After reading Inca's report I was a bit concerned about parking, I opted to improvise and parked on a grassy area leaving access to the farm unaffected. Having said that if these hills became popular (which I somehow doubt) then my parking spot could become churned up - judge for yourself?
Careful parking and room for at least one other car
You could get a wee car in this spot, but this is the A7 and although not the busiest road there is still plenty of traffic
The track that takes you to Eweslees Farm
Plenty of junk lying around
Not sure if anyone was within the buildings when I wandered past, certainly didn't see anyone
Looking back to the farm
Eweslees Burn that has to be jumped across
This rickety barbed wire fence assaulted me
To explain, I wandered along the fence looking for a suitable spot to climb over the fence, there didn't appear to be a sturdy post so opted to clamber over what appeared to be the easiest and lowest point. The idea was good however wet soles on my boots and a strand of wire combined mean my foot is going to slip, hindsight is great. So I was traddling the fence when my right foot slipped and I became impaled on the rusty top wire. My trousers were snagged and in a bit of a panic I put both hands on the top barbed fence, which ended up with cuts on both hands. My trousers are undamaged as my Ronhill trousers are very hard wearing, I do have cuts on both thighs and TCP was administered when I got home. In an effort to stem the bleeding I opened my first aid pack and found a couple of plasters. The plasters have been dormant for quite a few years and had lost a bit of the stickiness, but they di the job.
Left hand
Right hand index finger
Once over the fence I was treated to my first bout of bracken
Unfortunately this stuff is almost unavoidable
Looking down on the farm
Looking down on the A7
Looking down on the A7 south, also shows the angle of ascent
The pointy hill in the distance is near Melrose one of the Eildons
Looking across to the descent shoulder, the brown area is bracken
First view of the cairn on top of Pikethaw Hill
Nice twisting gully looking across to Wisp Hill
Large cairn on Pikethaw
Next target Wisp Hill with Eildon in the distance
Helicopter flypast
The descent down into the glen, 220m
Looking down the glen back to the farm
I followed a faint ATV track uphill
Looking across to the gully from a previous photo
Looking back downhill
Came across the little chap
Eildons from the trig on Wisp Hill
For anyone who is interested!!
It wouldn't be the Borders without these things improving the view
Eildons zoomed
My descent plan was to head back down via Whin Fell, it looked good on the map but I am not a fan of ascending before descending. Looking at the 20 or 30m ascent of Whin Fell put me off so I made the executive decision to traverse round the west side. The descent was steep and the lower slopes were covered in crispy knee deep bracken which was a bit of a battle. I had spotted a gate and was heading for it, the gate would then mean the battle with the bracken would be over and the farm was very close.
Looking down on the farm, the brown area is bracken
The gate I climbed over and that bracken
I really enjoyed these 2 hills and I have scars to prove I was there. If anyone is travelling down or up the A7 I would recommend stopping off.