Date: Tuesday 22 July 2014
Start Time: 11:00
Distance: 5 miles
Duration: 3 hours approximately
Meet at: Hunters Tryst (Public House) Car Park, in Oxgangs
On a day which was more suited to a day by the
seaside, twenty seven strollers met up at the Hunters Tryst at Swanston to
stroll round the Pentland Hills. Most of the early arrivees had gone into
Morrison's for the usual hearty breakfast to fortify them for the walk.
We made
our way down through New Swanston and over the bypass to use the path running
parallel to the bypass. Earplugs would have been a good move as it was quite
noisy here. At the end of this section we were circled by a buzzard, so a few
of the strollers decided that the safest thing was to cut short the walk and go
the short route back to Swanston Golf Club in time for a coffee. The rest of us
continued on past Dreghorn, the army training area and soon to be site of a
memorial plantation planted by the Woodland
trust to commemorate the outbreak of World War I. From here we headed down to
the bottom of the Bonaly Burn, which offered another chance for people to use
the path down to Colinton
Village if they wanted
to. However the mention of stopping for lunch kept everyone together. Mention
must be made of the sandwiches that Elzabe had prepared for David. There seemed
to be a never ending supply being pulled from his rucksack.
It was time to move on and work our way up the hill to Green Craig Cistern.
This was built as part of the first developments in providing water to Edinburgh from the
reservoirs in the Pentlands. The Strollers had extra company for this part with
3 dogs joining us to take our mind off the hill. From here we headed back
towards Swanston Golf Course where we divided into those who took the low road
past Robert Louis Stevenson's cottage and those that took the high road to see
the Highland coos. John and Kathy had
meanwhile gone off on a treasure hunt to find their missing camera case - they
took the low road home. The high road group then came down through Swanston Village with its thatched cottages,
where we met up with one of the local residents, who was familiar to most of
the group, Norrie McLeod. It was then down to the golf club for a well earned
drink and rest.
Many thanks to Drew and Eleanor for organising today’s walk.
The August walk will
be to Duns – let's hope for a slightly cooler day (says Drew).
