Participants - Me and Ben
Where - Mendick Hill, 451m/1,481', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 72, NT 121505
Early yesterday afternoon, MWIS was forecasting that today would be good in the south east of Scotland with some sunshine plus an 80% chance of cloud free summits, when I looked at their forecast again before going to bed it had changed to more cloudy and 40% and when I got up this morning it was saying that there would be hardly any brightness and with only a 20% chance of cloud free summits. Oh well! It still looked as though the best weather might be in the east so I headed that way without really knowing which hill I would be doing! And so I found myself parking close to West Linton golf club and heading along the track that runs to Dolphinton en route for an ascent of Mendick Hill, a south-western outlier of the Pentland Hills. It was indeed cloudy although it looked at times as though it might break up but in fact it never did. However the tops were clear. This is Mendick Hill from the start of the walk.....
An information board near the start explained that the route that I was following ran roughly in line with a road built by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago. This road linked their garrison at Biggar with one at Elginhaugh, a bridge-head fort guarding the crossin of the river North Esk near Dalkeith. In the 18th century, part of this route was used as a turnpike; it included an arched bridge built in 1620 over the West Water where no doubt the fees were collected.....
No fee was necessary to cross the bridge today but I stopped on it anyway to take another photo of Mendick Hill.....
There were lots of sheep about and Ben was on and off his lead constantly. Further on, just past a renovated house, I came across a sign saying "Mendick Hill" so took to the hill, contouring west across the slopes to avoid the steepest parts (as well as a few sheep that had wandered out of the fields and on to the hill). It was a bit wet lower down but firm and grassy higher up.....
It was not a great day for photography; this is looking towards Scald Law and the Kips.....
and this is what the same view looks like on a good day.....
The sun was doing its best to come out but this was all that it managed; a view south-west towards the Broughton Heights.....
We went back the same way, dodging some more sheep.
3 comments:
Hope you enjoyed your outing Neil Although small its a real gem of a hill.One of my favourites for views and position.
bob.
We were just south of the band of cloud on Sunday Neil.22 miles as the crow flies from Mendick Hill,we were in bright sunshine all day while doing a spot of Donald bagging on Cramalt Craig and it`s neighbours.
Damn....I had thought about climbing The Wiss but decided against the additional drive as I could not see that the weather would be any better further south. Oh well, that hillwalking in Scotland for you!
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