9.6 miles 4h 34min ascent 757m
Taberon Law-Middle Hill-Pykestone Hill-The Scrape
My red face and arms following this outing are testimony to the sunny weather, but I still found the wind cool enough to need a jacket at time.
The walk started at Kirkhope in the Manor Glen. There was space to park by an oversized passing place by a bridge over the Newholm Hope Burn. I followed the burn and joined the farm track heading up the valley to the ruins at Old Kirkhope. There is a footbridge over Kirkhope Burn but the track ends there.
Ruins at Kirkhope
Kirkhope Rig does not have a track but a grassy way weaves its way up towards a cairn on the horizon. The Rig became steeper a little way below the cairn and the grass was replaced with heather but a grassy track zig-zagging up the slope made the going easier.
I left the track to follow a section of burnt heather that I had hoped would take me up to the ground between Long Grain Knowe and Grey Weather Hill, but this curved away to join the Thief’s Road climbing around Dollar Law, so I had to tramp up through the heather. Staying with the zig-zag track would have been easier.
Dollar Law from Kirkhope Rig
Once in the col I had excellent views of Drumelzier Law and, further away, the Culter Hills and Tinto.
There was a faint track up Long Grain Knowe by the fence and then a wet walk across the Middle Hill. I suppose that section is bog but the Phrase “water meadow” was the one on my mind.
The entire walk could be summed up by describing flat dry grassy summits separated by boggy cols and joined by a fence, but I suppose I could describe the hills summits. Middle hill had no obvious high point or summit marker. Taberon Law had a small cairn which I think was a few metres away from the higher ground. Pykestone Hill had a cairn and the was also covered with sharp stones sticking out of the ground, presumably the origin of its name. The Scrape, my final New Donald, had a small cairn.
Taberon Law from Middle Hill
Taberon Law summit
Pykestone Hill
That all sounds a bit boring but the views were good and I enjoyed the walk.
The Scrape
The Scrape summit
My descent from The Scrape was along the ridge heading east from Pykestone Hill. Rather than climb back up Pykestone hill I headed across from the col along the 680m contour line, watched by a hare. I walked down to a rise above Northey Knowe then headed down the heather covered slopes. I headed towards my car but then spotted a trig pillar in the valley and my curiosity took me down to that. It isn’t on my OS maps but I would put it at about 380m. The central section has been filled with asphalt.
Trig pillar in the Kirkhope Glen
From there I headed down to the Celtic Cross and Font Stone . Though the font stone is marked on maps and has a hollowed top suggestive of a font, it is in fact the remains of the base of another cross. These monuments are supposed mark the site of St Gordian’s Kirk. St Gordian was a Christian Martyr, tortured and beheaded in 362 AD, whose remains are in the Sodality Chapel, Lancashire.
It was then a short stroll back along the track to the car.
[osmap gpx=”http://www.screel.co.uk/walks/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/RK_gpx-_2013-06-02_0914.gpx”]
