Pentland 6 plus Tinto
Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 8:15 pmAnyone expecting some nice snow scenery are in for a disappointment. I have a whole host of walk reports from the past couple of years still waiting in the wings but I never seem to find time to do them. I did this walk on the Saturday of the Glencoe Meet when the weather was glorious around Edinburgh and the Pentlands (apart from the wind). I started off from the Flotterstone Inn and did a clockwise circular walk taking in six tops – Turnhouse Hill, Carnethy Hill, Scald Law, South Black Hill, and East & West Kip.
Due to their proximity to Edinburgh, the Pentlands are popular not only with hillwalkers, but also families, dog-walkers, and just about anyone else you can think of. There are paths criss-crossing in every direction and it would be just about impossible to get lost. Many of the popular route descriptions direct walkers around the back (north) side of Hare Hill after exiting West Kip, but there’s no need to do this as a clear path goes across the front of Hare Hill and down into the valley of the Logan Burn for the return section past Loganlea and Glencorse reservoirs. It’s a very long, although scenic, walk along the reservoir road back to Flotterstone and I would recommend doing the route anti-clockwise, leaving the interesting hill section until last.
It was still quite early when I came off the Pentlands and so I drove over to Tinto Hill to add that to my list. If Ben Chonzie is the most boring Munro then Tinto has to be the most boring hill in the entire universe. It has no redeeming features whatsoever - not a bush or a tree anywhere, not even a rock after the initial section – just low lying scrub heather and very little else (probably very nice when flowering). The path to the summit is an absolute joke. It looks as if they went up there clearing a route with two bulldozers side-by-side. The path has to be twenty foot wide in places. Try to visit the hill fort remains on the way up (or even on the way down). It is on the left hand side going up from the car-park near Thankerton and it will be the only interesting feature you will see on the actual hill itself until you reach the summit. Near the top you follow a fence line but it would be pushing the boundaries of credibility to call that an interesting feature.
I worked for BR in Motherwell many moons ago and a driver from Thankerton told me of a local tradition that anyone going up Tinto should take a rock with them and deposit it on the summit to try to make the hill higher. Now that just sounds like a variation on the bog-standard ‘drop a stone on the summit cairn for luck’ ritual which many walkers apply routinely to other hills. However, the size of the summit cairn on Tinto had me thinking otherwise. It is huge. Easily the biggest cairn I’ve ever seen as it’s actually a twenty-foot high pile of boulders. Interestingly, the trig point is over a fence in the next field and it does seem as if the cairn has been built separately and long after the trig point was erected, otherwise why are the two things so remote from one another? Great views from the top of Tinto though and well worth the effort. Shame about the hill itself. Bizarrely, I looked back at the hill from the hill fort on my descent to the car park. The sun was low and highlighted a lone tree on the lower north slopes. I recommend the local council dig up that tree and replant it in a prominent position half way up the ascent route to give people something to focus on. Just a thought.
Loved the Pentlands. They are small but steep and with stunning scenery. I preferred them to the Ochills, to be honest. Desperate to do them over the Christmas holidays when, hopefully, they will still be covered in all that lovely white stuff!
Due to their proximity to Edinburgh, the Pentlands are popular not only with hillwalkers, but also families, dog-walkers, and just about anyone else you can think of. There are paths criss-crossing in every direction and it would be just about impossible to get lost. Many of the popular route descriptions direct walkers around the back (north) side of Hare Hill after exiting West Kip, but there’s no need to do this as a clear path goes across the front of Hare Hill and down into the valley of the Logan Burn for the return section past Loganlea and Glencorse reservoirs. It’s a very long, although scenic, walk along the reservoir road back to Flotterstone and I would recommend doing the route anti-clockwise, leaving the interesting hill section until last.
It was still quite early when I came off the Pentlands and so I drove over to Tinto Hill to add that to my list. If Ben Chonzie is the most boring Munro then Tinto has to be the most boring hill in the entire universe. It has no redeeming features whatsoever - not a bush or a tree anywhere, not even a rock after the initial section – just low lying scrub heather and very little else (probably very nice when flowering). The path to the summit is an absolute joke. It looks as if they went up there clearing a route with two bulldozers side-by-side. The path has to be twenty foot wide in places. Try to visit the hill fort remains on the way up (or even on the way down). It is on the left hand side going up from the car-park near Thankerton and it will be the only interesting feature you will see on the actual hill itself until you reach the summit. Near the top you follow a fence line but it would be pushing the boundaries of credibility to call that an interesting feature.
I worked for BR in Motherwell many moons ago and a driver from Thankerton told me of a local tradition that anyone going up Tinto should take a rock with them and deposit it on the summit to try to make the hill higher. Now that just sounds like a variation on the bog-standard ‘drop a stone on the summit cairn for luck’ ritual which many walkers apply routinely to other hills. However, the size of the summit cairn on Tinto had me thinking otherwise. It is huge. Easily the biggest cairn I’ve ever seen as it’s actually a twenty-foot high pile of boulders. Interestingly, the trig point is over a fence in the next field and it does seem as if the cairn has been built separately and long after the trig point was erected, otherwise why are the two things so remote from one another? Great views from the top of Tinto though and well worth the effort. Shame about the hill itself. Bizarrely, I looked back at the hill from the hill fort on my descent to the car park. The sun was low and highlighted a lone tree on the lower north slopes. I recommend the local council dig up that tree and replant it in a prominent position half way up the ascent route to give people something to focus on. Just a thought.
Loved the Pentlands. They are small but steep and with stunning scenery. I preferred them to the Ochills, to be honest. Desperate to do them over the Christmas holidays when, hopefully, they will still be covered in all that lovely white stuff!
- Start of the route
- Turnhouse Hill
- Castle Law & Glencorse Reservoir
- Carnethy Hill
- View from Carnethy Summit
- And looking West from Carnethy
- The path to Scald Law
- North-East from Scald Law summit
- South Black Hill
- Distant view to cloudy Tinto
- The Kips
- East Kip
- West Kip
- Looking back over the route
- Paths radiating everywhere
- Logan Burn valley
- Fishing on Loganlea Reservoir
- Castle Law across Glencorse Reservoir
- Mobile Fishing Glencorse style
- Distant Pentlands from Tinto summit
- Coulter Fell from Tinto
- Now that's a summit cairn!
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Mind you, the loch probably isn't big enough to row just for the sake of it is it?
I've always eyed it up from the A74 where it looks great!
Every time I'm at a trig point now I'll be scanning the horizon for two others!