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3 Marilyns = 7.5km

3 Marilyns = 7.5km


Postby Fife Flyer » Mon Apr 30, 2018 9:01 pm

Sub 2000' hills included on this walk: Belling Hill, Rubers Law, White Meldon

Date walked: 29/04/2018

Time taken: 2.2 hours

Distance: 7.5 km

Ascent: 530m

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Another rare weather window and I have a few Marilyn stragglers in the Borders still to visit. My original plan was Panvalla and White Meldon but as it is Sunday and the traffic would be much friendlier, so I changed my plan which would involve travelling much further south. As it turned out I actually spent more time on the road in the car than I did walking up and down hills.
My plan of action was to tackle Belling Hill first and having researched (as I usually do) all the hills, a big thanks to Inca as I would be loosely following his route. There has been discussion on FB about not being able to download other walkers routes, but that has never bothered me as I prefer to plot my own route and then download it onto my old phone.
The drive south was pleasant enough, it is a few years since I have been so far down the A68 and one thing that was very obvious were the number of static speed camera's - is there another road in Scotland with more camera's I somehow doubt it. I understand the argument that speed kills, but it is funny how the majority of camera's are either positioned on a downhill section of road, or one of the few overtaking spots, rant over.

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Large parking area, as described by "inca"

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Start of the gradual ascent

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Looking south

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Track splits, I turned left

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Plenty of trees have self seeded and thriving

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End of the track

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The way ahead

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Now turning right and heading north through a fire break

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A path!!!

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Ground surprisingly dry

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The summit of Belling Hill

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Built a small cairn for future visitors

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Looking SW almost back at the car


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Belling Hill route

Now after a short drive to my start point for Rubers Law I found a "sort of" parking space on the single track road which gave me easy access to my planned route. I was expecting this to be toughest hill of the day and so it turned out, having said that it was still rather easy and took about an hour.

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The single track road, no large laybys or car parks

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My shortcut to get to the track

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Final obstacle before reaching the safety of the track, Rubers Law in the distance

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Track almost takes you to the foot of Rubers Law

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Locals keeping an eye on me

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Looks a bit wonky, any suggestions as to what it is?

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I opted to follow the wall and keep on a direct route to the summit, the track is over to the right but I wasn't sure where it was heading.

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Track is on the other side of this new small plantation

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Looking back you can see the fairly obvious grassy bit I walked up

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Looking north, nice angle of ascent

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Looking south

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Looking back

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This is on the side of the trig on the summit of Rubers Law

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Looking North towards the Eildon's

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Top of the trig

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Hawick from on high

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Eildon's zoomed

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Rubers Law offers fantastic all round views

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The track that I didn't use on the ascent


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Rubers Law route

Once back at the car I took my boots off for the longer drive north through Selkirk and then Peebles. I set the satnav for Peebles as that is all it is capable of and like all satnavs it took me on the most direct route, which involved utilising B roads and travelling through villages and hamlets that hardly ever see visitors. Once through Peebles it was just a matter of finding the unclassified road that would take me to the Meldons.

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Useful blurb at the parking area

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Looking back down on the parking area and the toilets that are locked up, note the wee bridge over the tiny burn

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The road that takes you to Eddleston

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One of the locals, not seen many black lambs

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The bridge

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Looking east from the summit of White Meldon

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Unfortunately it looks as if White Meldon is too easily accessible to the 'low life', the toilets at the parking area are probably closed for the same reason

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Looking south along the road that would take you back to Peebles


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White Meldon route

Another enjoyable day albeit one of the easiest, as the title says 3 hills and only 7.5km walked, not good for the step count, the majority of the ascent was on Rubers Law. I have to admit they are not hills I will be re-visiting, but it is nice seeing parts of the country that I have not seen before.
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Re: 3 Marilyns = 7.5km

Postby malky_c » Mon Apr 30, 2018 10:29 pm

Nice day for it :) . I was on White Meldon earlier in the day - quite liked it actually, even though there wasn't very much of it! Driving back over to Northumberland in the evening, there was a lovely red glow on Rubers Law - quite fancy that one sometime. I didn't even know Belling Hill existed. If I had I might have nipped up it as I drove very close by. On the other hand, it doesn't look like there's a great deal to see from it.
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Re: 3 Marilyns = 7.5km

Postby Sgurr » Tue May 01, 2018 3:46 pm

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Re: 3 Marilyns = 7.5km

Postby M4RTIN » Tue May 01, 2018 9:44 pm

Nice little report, Martin, for a sensible amount of walking. Not one of those, “Here’s a great idea” silly-bu••ers days, some people come up with. 😉👍🏼
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Re: 3 Marilyns = 7.5km

Postby McMole » Fri May 04, 2018 10:52 pm

Fife Flyer wrote:Built a small cairn for future visitors

When I was there last May and, like you, enjoying a trio of Marilyns on a sunny day, I found a wee cairn. I added another rock or two on top of it not far from the corner of that wall. Has it been moved?
P1010220 s.JPG
I will admit to wandering about while wondering which particular tussock might be the highest before finding it. I discounted the wall and the many tree stumps. Later on another website I read that the summit is marked by a 'cairn 10m E of wall corner' which does agree with the one in my photo.
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Re: 3 Marilyns = 7.5km

Postby Fife Flyer » Sat May 05, 2018 8:10 am

McMole wrote:Later on another website I read that the summit is marked by a 'cairn 10m E of wall corner' which does agree with the one in my photo.


I checked my ALL my photo's again and didn't see any small cairn, the summit area is so tussocky a small cairn would be difficult to spot anyway.
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Re: 3 Marilyns = 7.5km

Postby inca » Sat May 05, 2018 9:37 pm

Good little report 👍 Interesting for me to see photos of the eastern approach to Rubers Law. Think you made a good choice. Personally, I found coming from Denholm on a to the south disappointing.

Just a thought on Belling Hill. When I did the hill in February last year, I didn't find a cairn. What I did find was a collection of stones scattered on the ground in roughly the same position McMole mentions. I didn't attribute much significance to the stones then. Subsequent checks on two other hillwalking websites proved unhelpful - pre 2017, one or two accounts mentioned a cairn, most were silent on the subject. In my report, I said maybe I'd missed it. Looking at the photo above, I think I'd have seen that. I spent several minutes looking. What I'm thinking now is that a cairn has been knocked down and rebuilt here on at least one occasion.
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Re: 3 Marilyns = 7.5km

Postby Graeme D » Sat May 05, 2018 11:27 pm

From now on I am going to call you Marilyn! :lol:
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Re: 3 Marilyns = 7.5km

Postby McMole » Sun May 06, 2018 5:28 pm

Fife Flyer wrote:I checked my ALL my photo's again and didn't see any small cairn, the summit area is so tussocky a small cairn would be difficult to spot anyway.


Perhaps cairns get tired of sitting in one spot all the time and go for an occasional stroll? We were up Ben Bowie a few weeks ago and from reading other reports its summit cairn moved 100m from the southern of the two tops to the 0.7m lower northern bump between early 2013 and late 2014 - perhaps for a better view of Loch Lomond. It is still there.

I think I took my Belling Hill photograph after I'd added the topmost stone. Before then it wasn't at all obvious and I agree with Inca that it has probably been flattened and rebuilt several times.
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