Pentland 6 plus Tinto

[houdi]

Anyone 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!

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!

[walk aboot]

Pentland hills and then Tinto, houdi, that is impressive .

The cairn on Tinto is actually an ancient one (dating from the Bronze age), and the carrying a stone to the top to keep the cairn growing is to make it as high as Coulter Fell...

http://www.hamiltonadvertiser.co.uk/lif ... -20753574/

I think you're right though, it is a more interesting walk from the steeper back route @ Wiston Lodge.

[houdi]

Thanks for the info walk aboot. Why is the trig point so far away though? There are remains of one of those direction pointers in all the rocks on the cairn. Guess that's why they didn't build the trig there? Coulter Fell looks a more interesting hill than Tinto. Will have to get up there sometime.

[walk aboot]

Don't know about the positioning of the trig point, houdi, maybe it's got something to do with not disturbing the cairn or something. Don't know if it's ever been excavated either, although I think the hill fort was .

There is a smaller cairn on Coulter Fell which is aligned with Tinto's one solstice-wise .

P.S. Forgot to say, nice photos .

[LeithySuburbs]

I may be wrong but I believe that trig points are basically lines of sight to other trig points. It then follows that they will not always be the highest point depending on the position of neighbouring ones.

Happy to be told otherwise

[Arte Et Labore]

Think you're right LeithySuburbs - I think each trig point is a line of sight form at least two others.

[mountain coward]

Presumably those rowing boats can be hired by anyone? I like rowing Mind you, the loch probably isn't big enough to row just for the sake of it is it?

I really liked the Pentlands, especially the Kips when I did them a few years back but I'm the opposite in that I like to do my hills first and then finish off along a valley or road to wind down and relax my legs at the end...

I was really looking forward to going up Tinto - are you trying to put me off? I've always eyed it up from the A74 where it looks great!

[magicdin]

Think you're right LeithySuburbs - I think each trig point is a line of sight form at least two others.

Yes - always another two visible - "Triangulation Points"
Did Nick Crane not have an episode of Map Man re this

[Red Peak]

Think you're right LeithySuburbs - I think each trig point is a line of sight form at least two others.

Yes - always another two visible - "Triangulation Points"
Did Nick Crane not have an episode of Map Man re this

Well I never knew that ... Every time I'm at a trig point now I'll be scanning the horizon for two others!

[Merry-walker]

Didn't know that either

[fedupofuserids]

Think you're right LeithySuburbs - I think each trig point is a line of sight form at least two others.

Yes - always another two visible - "Triangulation Points"
Did Nick Crane not have an episode of Map Man re this

Well I never knew that ... Every time I'm at a trig point now I'll be scanning the horizon for two others!

I think with accurate GPS and satellite mapping, out of the 6000+ trig points only about 200 are now used. What will happen to the obsolete ones is anybodies guess. Shame - if a hill has a trig near the summit I always consider that to be just as important as the summit cairn; also handy for navigation.

Nice pics houdi - an area I plan to visit....one day !

[mountain coward]

Unwanted trigpoints were put up for adoption around here - you just have to go up with a pot of paint occasionally and tidy them up a bit and keep them looking nice. Quite a few did get adopted

[Red Peak]

Unwanted trigpoints were put up for adoption around here - you just have to go up with a pot of paint occasionally and tidy them up a bit and keep them looking nice. Quite a few did get adopted

Yeah, I remember that. Quite a few years back if memory serves me right. Wasn't it trig points anywhere in the country though, rather than a specific area?

So did you adopt one, mc? As if we don't have enough to carry on the hills without lugging a brush and a tin of Dulux emulsion up there ...

[mountain coward]

Well I thought it was anywhere in the British Isles but with people not knowing about it on here assuming it must have just been in my area! Nope, I didn't adopt one, although we have one on the nearby climbing crags of Crookrise which I quite fancied and also on another little pointy favourite of everyone's - Sharphaw. I'm pretty sure the Sharphaw one got adopted though

[magicdin]

Are they not also considered to be historical monuments
The trig point on Badandun Hill has a plaque on it to that effect I'm sure
Think I have a photo of it - will have a look

Link added
http://digitalarchives.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84&Itemid=89