Walk No. 210: Peebles, Venlaw Hill, Soonhope Burn, Janet's Brae
Date: Wednesday 19th October 2016
Distamce: 6 miles approximately
Started and finished at: Edinburgh Road Car Park, Peebles
On what was supposed to be a sunny day but was a
bit overcast, fourteen strollers met up for a walk round Venlaw and either a
stroll down Soonhope Burn or a longer walk through Glentress forest. Walking up
Venlaw, and passing the quarry from where the stone was quarried for a lot of
the houses in Peebles, there was a slight flurry of rain but luckily it wasn’t
heavy enough to expand the many puddles from the previous night’s rain. The
slope down to the Soonhope Burn seemed steeper than last time but at least
there was now a fence to hold on to. Crossing the burn and going up the hill to
the path also seemed steeper, is this a memory or an age thing, or both? A
couple of strollers elected to go back down the path by the Soonhope Burn
passing the holiday cottages built after the Second World War and make their
way down to Peebles. The rest declined the offer of going straight up the hill
from where we were into Glentress and Janet’s Brae, and instead we followed the
path up the Soonhope Burn and then cut off to follow the forest road into
Glentress. It seemed to keep going up for a long time. Keeping our eyes peeled
for cyclists we worked our way ever upwards to the Buzzards car park and a
break for lunch. We didn’t see any buzzards just lots of happy cyclists on
their school holidays and the ingenuity of one being pulled up the hill by a
car and a tow rope. From there we made our way down Janet’s Brae and past
Peebles Hydro back into Peebles and time for a snack before going home. Looking forward to a flatter railway path walk in November!
Many thanks yet again to Drew for arranging our walks. Hope to see you all in November.
