This gallery is not yet available
Brief route description
The
route from Peebles to West Linton is based on Hamish Brown's original
route. His first objective is Neidpath castle on the banks of the
Tweed, and to reach it you should cross the river bridge at the south
end of the town centre and follow the A72 westwards until you reach Hay
Lodge Park, just beyond the hospital. Enter the park, walk down to the
river bank, and follow it as far as the castle.
From the castle make your way directly up to the road then walk back
towards Peebles for a couple of hundred metres before turning left onto
a track accompanying the Rae Burn. This leads to a golf course. Keep to
its edge initially then follow the access drive to Jedderfield, an
isolated house to the west. Stay on the track past the house, which
crosses the shoulder of a nameless hill that is crowned by the Peebles
TV relay station which you will see rising above you. The track reaches
a field corner then keeps to the southern edge of the next field to
another corner some 200 metres beyond, where it peters out.
Cross into the next enclosure. You're now on the slopes of South Hill
Head. Climb the pathless slope, tending a little to the right; you
should, after some ten minutes, find yourself on the ridge forming the
northern spur of South Hill Head, which is known as Clock Knowe. Your
next objective is White Meldon, a prominent grassy hill one kilometer
to the north, and at an elevation of 427 metres the highest point of
today's walk. It's a lonely little summit with a seemingly endless
vista of similar hills, particularly to the south west. Head off the
hill directly to the west, aiming for the southern corner of a wood on
the other side of an unclassified road. There is, somewhat
incongruously, a picnic spot here.
Walk alongside the wood to the west for 100 metres then turn right to
find a track running northwards through the wood and running parallel
to the road. Follow this track for some 800 metres, as far as a
crossing track, onto which you now tuen left. This track heads uphill
for about a mile to reach the little community of Harehope. The route
through Harehope is particularly tricky so, unless you have Hamish
Brown's text to hand to guide you, I would suggest a longer but far
more straightforward alternative. Some three hundred metres short of
Harehope turn hard right onto a track heading initially northeast; this
curves around to the north, then the northwest, before entering another
area of woodland known as Harehope Forest. Stay on the same track,
which now makes a long loop to the south to run around the summit of
Harehope Hill. An ancient earthwork known as Harehope Rings crowns the
summit of this hill; it's worth leaving the track briefly to
investigate and also to take in the view. Regain the track on the other
side of the knoll and follow it to the northwest, until it exits the
forest at a field corner and terminates.
Your route now lies downhill to the north, alongside the edge of the
forest. You will need to head well into the pasture away from the
forest edge to avoid a boggy area that feeds a small stream, but having
rounded this, stroll downhill to the north to reach the ford over
Flemington Burn. Here you reach a fairly complicated network of
landrover tracks; turn left initially to reach a triple fork. Your
onward route is the middle track, heading uphill and slightly west of
north. This is the shallow valley of the Fingland Burn, sandwiched
between Drum Maw and Hag Law, hill of almost identical height. The
track runs uphill for nearly a mile, curving further to the northwest
and eventually reaching a ribbon woodland. Continue through this wood.
The going here is generally rather muddy, unfortunately.
At the far end of the wood you find yourself looking down at the
village of Romannobridge, not far short of West Linton. The path
network here is a little tricky and the map doesn't do the best of jobs
in depicting it, but your best option is to follow the path downhill
and around to the right, to reach the upper end of a small copse of
trees; turn left just past the copse to head downhill, with Romanno
Mains on your right and Romanno House Farm a bit lower down on your
left. You should then find yourself passing the cemetery to come out
onto the A701 road.
Although the map suggests a possible off-road route to West Linton via
Damside and Spitalhaugh, Hamish Brown makes no mention of it and
instead prefers the quieter of the two surfaced options. Turn left onto
the A701 at Romannobridge and follow it for the best part of a mile,
after which you turn right onto an unclassified lane heading for West
Linton via the locality of Bogs Bank. It's about two and a half miles
to West Linton and the route has little of interest to offer. Once you
reach West Linton itself the busy A702 will come as a bit of a culture
shock. The road carries the bus service between Biggar and Edinburgh
via Penicuick.
|
Walk Statistics:
|
| Length: |
14.6 miles / 23.5 km |
| Total ascent: |
2671 ft / 814 m |
| Total descent: |
2393 ft / 729 m |
| Estimated time: |
5 hrs 35 mins |
Maps: OS 1:25000 Explorer 337 (Peebles & Innerleithen), 336
(Biggar), 344 (Pentland Hills)
