Edinburgh has been experiencing some beautiful weather, so on Monday we decided to escape from the city and head to the hills. The Pentland Hills are a long range of hills that run along south of the city. Derek found a route to the hills via Balerno and Havelaw, and we were off. We took a city bus to Balerno, a village on the western edge of Edinburgh, and then walked half an hour to Havelaw's visitor centre where we picked up a couple maps and guides. A few minutes away we settled down on a bench overlooking the reservoir for a picnic lunch and looked at our trail options.
Derek's original idea was for us to walk the 2.5 mile trek around the reservoir, but almost immediately upon seeing the reservoir we also the large trucks and construction around half of the shrunken body of water (according to BBC Scotland, the beautiful weather has had the unfortunate effect of lowering water levels in reservoirs across Scotland to a worrying amount). Not terribly appealing, and impossible to make an entire circle, so we decided to walk straight to the Black Hill, which does look much darker than the surrounding hills due to its vegetation.
Upon reaching the base of the hill we saw a map showing the construction sites and found that we could either double back, walk around on the main path behind the far side of the hill, or take a path on the near side that was shorter and would take us over to meet the main path. We took the third option, the supposedly straight path that led from where we were along the base of the hill to the main path that would take us a different route back to Balerno, where we'd catch the bus home again.
The path was not what it looked like on the map. It was a nice trek, slowly making its way higher and higher along the side of the hill as it followed an ancient looking stone wall between pastures with sheep and the hill's vegetation. At some points the wall had crumbled (it looked like it had been made of piles of stone with nothing to hold it together), and near these spots we could usually find a couple sheep wandering high up on the hill. Two little lambs gave Derek quite start as the suddenly bolted down the hill straight for him, then stopped and stared. Derek was standing in front of one such hole in the fence, which was their way back home. It was really cute :)
Then came the scary part of the trek: the descent. The path suddenly narrowed dramatically and the wall had gone a different way, so we were on our own on the side of the hill (I say 'hill' -- it's over 500m high, although we were only probably about 250m or less up the side). It wasn't steep, but the view down and the loose rocky trail didn't inspire confidence. Luckily Derek's great at instilling confidence, and we made it down to the main trail below just fine.
And so we followed the trail which led to the road, and the road took us to the edge of Balerno and the end of the line for the bus we needed to take home, which happily was sitting there waiting and left within a few minutes of us getting on. It was a great way to spend an afternoon, and the beautiful sunshine and mild winds had led to some beautiful views. Plus Derek had brought a fully-stocked backpack with the picnic lunch, three bottles of water, fruit, and trail mix.
As an epilogue I'd like to mention that there's different rules here in the Scotland for using land that belongs to others. All the details are found in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Basically, anyone has the right access almost anywhere in Scotland including parks, hills, beaches, forests, rivers and lochs -- there's just rules about how you can use that land. You can even walk though farmland if you stay to edges and don't disturb any livestock. The rules include that you must respect the environment, close gates behind you, not feed the animals, and avoid damaging fences, walls and crops. But you can go just about anywhere except building and their immediate surroundings, and houses and their gardens. Now that we know we've got great access rights we may have to get out of the city a little more often!
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