Turnhouse, Carnethy, Scald Law - We're back!

 11 April 2021!

We are back! We have still been climbing hills, but have had a bit of a hiatus in recording them.

The time has come, however, to resurrect the hill blog now that the two smaller members of the family have truly found their hill legs and are ready to tackle some of Scotland's bigger walks!

This was our Munro warm-up walk. All our previous Munro attempts had been cancelled before they even began due to illness or bad weather. This time nothing was going to stop us! Our practice walk was one we had done a number of times. Starting at Flotterstone and heading up Turnhouse Hill, Carnethy Hill and Scald Law before heading back past the two large reservoirs. Its a good 5 1/2 hour stomp and perfect for a good days walking.

The walk starts at car park, just off the A702 by the Flotterstone Inn. You follow the track out and turn onto a track on the left, sign posted for Scald Law. Another signpost for Scald Law indicates a path through a gate on the left. After taking this you cross a footbridge and bear right. The route now begins the ascent to Turnhouse Hill, climbing up and down along a ridge over two hummocks. The path now heads up the hillside towards a group of trees. The views back from here are lovely. It's a great place to have some water and admire the view.

 

Continue steeply upwards to reach the ridge at Turnhouse Hill. A grand traverse now stretches ahead with superb views off to either side. Today was a cold bright day with a surprisingly fierce frost.

Look at the thick frost. It was a beautiful day though!

The route passes over two summits and then descends down to a bealach where the ridge is crossed by a fence. Pass through a gate to begin the ascent to Carnethy Hill - the second highest of the Pentlands. The summit is marked by a sprawling cairn - shown here with Freyja and Leo - and is a fantastic viewpoint for all directions, both ahead to Scald Law with the Kips to its right, back towards Edinburgh.

Continue along the ridge path which now loses height as it leads to the next bealach, again marked by a fence. An old right of way - the Kirk Road - crosses the ridge here. Here everyone had lots of energy left, so we continued along the ridge to take in Scald Law, the highest of the Pentlands.

Freyja positively sprinting to the Scald Law trig-point.

Made it!

  Then back down Scald Law on the same path - to the left it leads down to a layby on the A702, but the route to the right - to the top end of Loganlea Reservoir - is used as the descent route.

We even found a bench at the bottom for lunch!

Then following the road all the way back along the side of Loganlea Reservoir - a  popular spot with fishermen. Beyond this the road runs beside the Logan burn to reach the larger Glencorse reservoir. Continue beside this, eventually curving round by a line of Scots pines. The road leads all the way back to Flotterstone!

 

A fine walk.

 

Spotted: several grouse.