Participants - Me and Ben
Where - Black Hill (Pentlands), 501m/1,645', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 65/66, NT 188632
The forecast promised a bright day with plenty of sunny periods especially in the east so I headed for the Pentlands. I could see blue sky in front of me as I drove along the motorway but it never seemed to get any closer and I reckon that I would have had to carry on well into the North Sea before I got any of the forecast conditions! However it was dry and the conditions were quite atmospheric for photography.
On previous visits to the Black Hill I have always approached it from Balerno. I fancied a change so today I drove round to Flotterstone and parked at the Ranger Centre. Although the route from here is initially along a tarmac road, it follows a fold in the hills past a couple of reservoirs and is probably more scenic. The Black Hill is tucked out of sight from this approach and I only got my first view of it when I reached the far end of Glencorse reservoir.....
A newish track seems to start around here before winding across the south side of Black Hill before ending close to the summit. It must be for the grouse shooting. However, there were a lot of sheep on the hillside about here and as the lambing season is fast approaching and I wasn't sure how Ben would react to sheep- he hasn't met one of these funny wooly things at close quarters yet- I decided to carry on up the road and try to find another route up the hill. Black Hill is a name usually given to hills with lots of heather on them and I was resigning myself to a plod through the stuff when, almost at the west end of Loganlea reservoir, I spotted an old and partially overgrown track heading up the hill. So we took that. The sun was trying its best to come out but never made much progress; this is looking to Scald Law from the track.....
There is a small cairn on the plateau although I am not sure if it actually marks the highest point; with the aid of treats I managed to get Ben to stay still long enough at it for the obligatory summit picture. This is with Scald Law in the background.....
and this one is with the Kips beyond.....
We just followed the same route back. There was a good view of Loganlea reservoir from lower down with Carnethy Hill beyond.....
and we were soon back on the road, passing Glencorse reservoir again (Castlelaw Hill beyond).....
I reckon that this route was about 7 miles or so and it took just short of 4 hours.
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