I’m moving to Edinburgh in a few days, and I said goodbye to the Scottish Borders today by finally embarking on the one walk I had been planning to do ever since I got to Peebles. I felt well prepared after having done two walks with my landlord in the last two weeks, and the weather looked friendly enough, so off I went.
If it wasn’t too dramatic a description I would call the walk a ridge-walk, but the rolling hills in the Borders are perfectly round and harmless, so calling their tops ridges would be a stretch. Instead I’ll go for “horseshoe” which is a more appropriate name, and sounds much better than just a “circular” walk. It just means I went up one hill and hopped to the next and the next and so on, keeping the Glensax burn to my right until I surrounded its spring at the very south of the route, and walked back on top of the hills on the other side of the burn. It was a 24 km walk and took me a bit less than eight hours. Eight excellent hours.
View back to Peebles from the first hill, Craig Head
Large hail
First hill top: Craig Head (421 m)
These are all the hills I meant to climb.
Kirkhope Law (537 m)
Peebles is getting smaller and smaller…
Birkscairn Hill (661 m)
Ordnance Survey triangulation station on Dun Rig (774 m)
Hilltop whisky liqueur
Prost!
Middle Hill (716 m)
View of Arhur’s Seat, Salisbury Rock, Firth of Forth, and even Fife.
