Walking in the Pentland Hills. Susan Falconer
the late 1960s that the Pentlands were considered for legislative protection under the Countryside (Scotland) Act 1967, and the idea of designating the area a regional park was first mooted. After much debate, eventually leading to a public enquiry, on 12 September 1986 the Secretary of State for Scotland confirmed that 9158 hectares of the Pentland Hills was designated a regional park.
The act of designating this area a regional park served to acknowledge the beauty of the landscape, the importance of the wildlife, and the recreational value of this working area. As a regional park, the objective is to retain and enhance the essential character of the hills as a place for peaceful enjoyment of the countryside.
The role of the Pentland Hills Ranger Service is to ensure the integration of responsible access with farming, and the other land uses in the hills. This is done through maintaining the path network, providing waymarking and signage, staffing visitor centres at Flotterstone and Harlaw, producing maps and leaflets about responsible enjoyment, and patrolling to be a practical presence for visitors and land managers alike.
For information on Scotways and the Pentland Hills Regional Park, visit www.scotways.com and www.pentlandhills.org.
Wildlife
The varied habitats of the Pentlands give rise to a rich diversity of wildlife.
Heather moorland is home to red grouse, the merlin, mountain hare, emperor moth and green hairstreak butterfly. ‘Muirburn’ – the deliberate burning of areas of mature heather to create a mosaic of differing ages and varying heights of heather – benefits many species. The new shoots and variety of structures in a well-managed moor provide food and cover for birds, mammals and insects.
The many reservoirs in the Pentlands are especially good for wildfowl. Westwater (Walk 14) is a Ramsar site (a wetland of international importance), especially significant for thousands of pink-footed geese in the winter. Threipmuir (Walk 7) has mallard, teal, whooper swan and great crested grebe, and North Esk has a noisy colony of black-headed gulls. Smaller ponds support colourful insects such as the large red damselfly and common hawker dragonfly, as well as common frogs and palmate and smooth newts.
Looking over Loganlea Reservoir to Carnethy Hill and Turnhouse Hill (Walk 29)
Grasslands are home to brown hares, short-eared owls, the common shrew and meadow brown butterfly.
The Pentlands are not heavily wooded – there are a few conifer plantations, and the 19th-century shelter belts and woodlands surrounding reservoirs support birds such as the willow warbler, crossbill, goldcrest and sparrowhawk.
Fungi are often overlooked, or in some cases destroyed by people, but they play a vital role in recycling nutrients in a woodland or grassland. They are a fascinating group of organisms in their own right, and to discover more about them, visit www.britmycolsoc.org.uk.
Patches of gorse scrub are good places to find stonechats and whinchats, as well as robins and wrens, and rocky screes are the haunt of common lizards, which bask in the sun.
Bogs and marsh are where plants and animals specially adapted to their surroundings can be found. Insectivorous plants such as round-leaved sundew and common butterwort grow on damp ground, and obtain essential nutrients from the flies and beetles they trap.
There is usually some wildlife interest at any time of year on the walks described.
Cauliflower fungus at base of Scots pine (Walk 6)
WALK 1
A capital view
| Start/Finish | Hillend car park (NT249669) |
| Distance | 5.5km |
| Total Ascent | 390m |
| Time | 2hr |
| Maps | Ordnance Survey Landranger 66 or Ordnance Survey Explorer 344 |
A short, and in places steep, walk rewarded with magnificent views across the city and surrounding hill ranges. Excellent on a crisp winter’s day when time and light are short.
1 Begin at the Hillend car park next to the bus terminus at the entrance to the Midlothian Snowsports Centre. There is a waymarker post here – follow the sign indicating Capital View Walk.
Make your way uphill on a broad path over grassy slopes, then through sparsely wooded areas with bracken, gorse and trees, for about 600m. Follow the Capital View waymarkers and finger posts from this point.
Keep walking uphill on a path through Hillend Country Park to reach an open grassy knoll at NT245672, near the ski runs. From here you can admire the views over the city and beyond.
Juniper berries
On the top of the knoll are the faint remains of a fort, possibly Iron Age. All that is visible of its rampart is a low mound and a stretch of ditch and bank, but with imagination the structures that would have been here 2000 years ago can be visualised.
Descend the knoll on a path to the west, and at another signpost indicating Caerketton, go through the metal gate and follow the path as it zigzags up the bulk of Caerketton Hill. Climb up onto the ridge, ascending 100m in 500m.
The shrubs in the wooden enclosures to your right on the way up Caerketton Hill are junipers, one of three conifers native to Scotland. Juniper is scarce in the Pentlands and bushes are scattered (they may once have been plentiful, but there is some dispute over this – see Malcolm Cant's Villages of Edinburgh: An Illustrated Guide Vol. II). To help re-establish juniper in the hills, the Pentland Hills Regional Park with Defence Estates, Forest Research and TCV (Scotland) are undertaking a programme of growing-on cuttings and berries to plant in other suitable places. Berries, which do not form on the juniper bushes until the bushes are eight years old, are used to flavour gin, as well as making a peppery seasoning for venison or duck.
2 There is a tumbled-down cairn on Caerketton Hill, possibly of Bronze Age origin (see also Walk 27). Enjoy the views over Edinburgh and beyond, perhaps agreeing with Lord Cockburn that this is one of the three finest viewpoints in Scotland (along with Ben Lomond by Loch Lomond and Dumyat in the Ochil Hills, north of Stirling).
Continue on a path along the ridge until you start to descend rocky slopes to a bealach (pass) between Caerketton and Byerside Hill, at NT231664. (A stile and path leading downhill to your left drop down to Boghall Glen, which you could use to link with Walk 27, and return to Hillend via Boghall Plantation.) Continue over Byerside Hill on a muddy path, and then up the grassy slope of Allermuir Hill to its viewpoint indicator and trig pillar at 493m.
The original indicator on Allermuir Hill was presented to the National Trust for Scotland in 1963 by Arthur Russell, the Trust’s law officer. The indicator also includes a reminder that the northern slopes of the Pentlands are protected by a conservation agreement between the landowner, Major Henry Trotter, and the National Trust for Scotland.
The viewpoint indicator on Allermuir summit
3 Descend Allermuir Hill by the same route over Byerside Hill and return to the bealach below Caerketton. Instead of climbing back over Caerketton (although this is an option), take a grassy path that