Drow 'n' Smirr

7.9 miles  3h 21m  ascent 557m

Birks Hill, Birkscairn Hill, Glensheil Banks

"And birks saw I three or four,
      Wi' grey moss bearded owre,--
    The last that are left o' the birken shaw,
      Whar mony a simmer e'en
      Fond lovers did convene,
    Thae bonny, bonny gloamins that are lang awa'

This walk started on the road from Kirkhouse up towards Glen House. Parking wasn’t easy and I thought I might have to leave the car at the church in Kirkhouse but managed to squeeze it at the side of the road a little closer.

At a Tweed Trails sign, I followed the track signed for “Peebles”. This leads up towards Birks and gives the first views of Birks Hill. The OS map shows a path turning left towards the house at Birks but the Tweed Trail turns right through woodland and then drops towards the Glass Burn.

Tweed Trail by the Glass Burn

From here I headed north, still on a definite path, but one obviously not much used. There had been some tree-felling and by a felled field, filled with foxgloves, some rustling in the ferns beside the track turned out to be a deer that stood watching me for a moment before bounding off. The next rustling was a sheep. I don’t usually expect to see them in the ferns.

Deer at Birks

The path petered out and I set out across a field of ferns which then gave way to rushes. I expect this section could be wet but in the midst of the heatwave it was dry. At the boundary between fern and rush was a substantial stand of nettles, which made me regret wearing shorts. I hesitated briefly then pushed on through (a true adventurer?). Much to my surprise they didn’t sting.

After the rushes I met a well worn track that led to the col below Birks Hill. The track continued around Birks Hill climbing slowly onto its northern slopes. I left the track at its highest point, where there was a Tweed Trail marker post, and headed directly up the slopes. There seemed to be a swathe of grass through the heather, which I presume must once have been burned a few seasons ago, and that made the going easier.  I met a track coming from the NE which made me wonder if I had missed a direct route up from the col. There are a couple of small cairns on Birks Hill. One might be the summit though to my eye an un-cairned rise to the SW looked higher.

Birks Hill

A faint track led across a dried-up bed of moss in the col and up to Birkscairn Hill where there was a cairn big enough to sit on for lunch.

Birkscairn Hill

Birkscairn Hill, on a different day.

From Birkscairn Hill I walked down and joined the Old Drove Road which is now just a faint track. This took me over the shoulder of Stake Law and across two wee burns. Though it must be well over a century since the drovers used this pathway it still remains and must be kept in existence by occasional walkers. It is certainly a pretty glen to walk in though the ground looked as if it could muddy up with a little water. Once I could see Glenshiel Banks I headed directly down the slope towards it.

Banks Burn, Looking down to Glenshiel Banks from the Drove Road

Glenshiel Banks is enclosed in a stone wall. A small cottage is obviously still used and a ruined building stands nearby. There is a bridge over Banks Burn which is a major tributory of Quair Water. From there it was a slightly monotonous farm track back to the start. But the hedgerows were brimming with plants and butterflies and there was a good view of Loch Eddy nestling in its deep glen. A future outing perhaps.

Glenshiel Banks

Loch Eddy, Glendean Banks

7.2 miles  3h 40m  ascent 521m

Langhaugh Hill-Waddyside Rig-Black Cleuch Hill-White Cleuch Hill-Black Law-Sting Rig

Back to the Manor Glen once more, I parked opposite the mysterious doorway in Langhaugh Hill that may look like the entrance to the Hall of the Mountain King but is actually an access portal for the Megget-Manor aqueduct. This is provided with a handy bridge over the Manor Water. I had planned walking along to the stand of trees about 300m away before heading onto Langhaugh Hill, but the slopes weren’t particularly daunting so I just headed directly up. There were in fact animal tracks through the ferns and it was easy enough to avoid most of the scree.

Speak friend and enter

On the way up I passed a couple of cairns, at about 470m and 5oom, and can’t think why they were there. A little beyond the top of Langhaugh Hill I picked up a faint track that I  followed up Waddyside Rig. I call it a track but it was really a gap in the heather where grass fought with sphagnum moss for supremacy. The grass was losing the battle and several sections required diversions around some particularly boggy areas. The track ran below the top of the ridge and by the looks of it contoured round onto Black Law. Since it did not turn towards Black Cleuch Hill, I left it to join the dilapidated fence to Black Cleuch Hill.

Bogs on Waddyside Rig

The going in this section was harder. The heather was deep, the mosses particularly sodden and the route littered with water filled ditches. It looks as if this had been triggered by vehicles on the fragile peat, but I can’t imagine anything other than tracked vehicles being able to move there. This was to be the terrain for many sections of the walk, not particularly difficult but extra work for the legs. I was surprised by the profusion of cloudberry and was at times walking over huge mats of green leaves amid the heather.

Cloudberry

Black Cleuch Hill, my main target for the day, did not have a definite top so I did my usual wandering about visiting areas that looked higher until I got there and looked back. If I’m ever found collapsed on a hill, the forensics people will review my GPS log and think I had just lost my mind. It would show me walking directly up a hill and then wandering about apparently aimlessly at the top. Amongst the boggy moorland there was not a firm seat to be had for a break so I set off to White Cleuch Hill following the line of the fence where the ground allowed. Coming back I did try the other side of the fence hoping it would be less soggy but neither side was better than the other.

White Cleuch Hill and Glenrath Hills

White Cleuch Hill gave me another look at the Glenrath hills that I’d walked a few weeks earlier, but the day wasn’t one for great views. The visibility was good enough to see the Eildon Hills twenty miles away but it was hazy and overcast turning the hills into silhouettes. By the time I was back to Black Cleuch Hill, Cramalt Craig’s summit was in cloud and Dollar Law soon followed.

Black Cleuch Hill

The walk over to Black Law was easy enough, just 1km of heather, cloudberry and cotton grass and 50m of gentle climb. Shallow parallel trenches run up to Black Law and along to its SW top, and looking back they also ran back up to Black Cleuch Hill. Immediately adjacent to the fence and too straight to be natural my first thought was that they must be vehicle tracks but they were too deep and spaced wrongly. They look more like the furrows you see in forestry plantations.

Black Law, with furrows, from Black Cleuch Hill

Blackhouse Heights is sometimes given as an alternative name for Black Cleuch Hill but it is better thought of as comprising Black Cleuch Hill and Black Law’s two tops. The central top of these three is the highest at 698m. A gate stands near the summit and beside it lay a a large log that served well as a seat for lunch. I presume this was a substantial gate post, never used. It was certainly larger than needed for a fence post. The letters GPO 1909 were carved into it, but its condition was too good for it to have lain there for a century.

Moffat Hills from Black Law

The trenches continued along to the SW top where I turned and headed down Sting Rig. Once over the hill’s convexity I could look down the rig and see a track though close up this was less easy to discern. The terrain and vegetation were not too bad though. I was caught out by a hidden hole which swallowed both of my legs to the knees so care was required. On the lower slopes, below a fence and gate I picked up a constructed path and followed that down to a shallow ford on the Linghope Burn.

Manor Glen from Sting Rig

There was then a short stretch across a meadow with butterflies dancing about and a wheatear flashing his white rump before I crossed the Manor Water on a wooden footbridge that has seen better days.

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.