waymarked a route from Dunsyre to Swanston, called The Pentland Way. A comprehensive guide to the route, written by Bob Paterson, was published in 2015.
Literary Connections with the Pentland Hills
The Pentlands have provided inspiration for many writers, and Cochrane’s Pentland Walks with Their Literary and Historical Associations and Moir’s Pentland Walks, Their Literary and Historical Associations both describe these connections. Allan Ramsay based his pastoral comedy The Gentle Shepherd in the area around Carlops (Walks 16 and 17). Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson walked the northern Pentlands extensively, and Walk 2 covers much of the area explored by Stevenson. (The poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, both evacuated to Craiglockhart Hospital in 1917, also walked in these hills.) (See bibliography,Appendix B, for details of the above titles.)
Swanston cottage (Walk 2)
Protecting and enjoying the hills
The Pentland Hills have long been a destination for people seeking recreation in the countryside. Well over a century ago, in 1883, the Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society began two years of negotiation with landowners and surveying of paths, and in 1885 inaugural signposts were erected on most Pentland paths. The society produced the first walking guidebook, with a copy presented to each Pentland landowner, and a further 300 to the Edinburgh Trades Council – for distribution among working men ‘in order that healthful enjoyment and recreation afforded by the rights of way across the hills should be better known’. The society continues its invaluable work today.
Bonaly Reservoir from Harbour Hill (Walk 4)
With improved and increased access, however, came an increase in problems – with litter, for example. In The Pentland Hills, William Anderson complained, back in 1926 ‘…there is nothing more offensive than, on arriving…to find the outflow choked with paper or cardboard boxes, and the ground littered with orange and banana skins, broken bottles, and such like’ (although his suggestion for hiding litter in molehills or under heather bushes is not acceptable now). On 24 May 1932 The Scotsman reported that the Victoria Day holiday saw thousands trekking to the hills, the lonely spaces being invaded from an early hour and traffic to Flotterstone Bridge (Walk 23) exceptionally heavy.
Recognition of the Pentlands’ role in Edinburgh’s recreation activities, and the need for protection of the hills, has been noted for decades. Letters to The Scotsman in November 1945 suggested that the Pentlands become the United Kingdom’s first national park, dedicated to the memory of those who gave their lives for their country in the Second World War. But it was not until the late 1960s that the Pentlands were considered for legislative protection under the Countryside (Scotland) Act 1967, and the idea of designating the area a regional park was first mooted. After much debate, eventually leading to a public enquiry, on 12 September 1986 the Secretary of State for Scotland confirmed that 9158 hectares of the Pentland Hills was designated a regional park.
The act of designating this area a regional park served to acknowledge the beauty of the landscape, the importance of the wildlife, and the recreational value of this working area. As a regional park, the objective is to retain and enhance the essential character of the hills as a place for peaceful enjoyment of the countryside.
The role of the Pentland Hills Ranger Service is to ensure the integration of responsible access with farming, and the other land uses in the hills. This is done through maintaining the path network, providing waymarking and signage, staffing visitor centres at Flotterstone and Harlaw, producing maps and leaflets about responsible enjoyment, and patrolling to be a practical presence for visitors and land managers alike.
For information on Scotways and the Pentland Hills Regional Park, visit www.scotways.com and www.pentlandhills.org.
Wildlife
The varied habitats of the Pentlands give rise to a rich diversity of wildlife.
Heather moorland is home to red grouse, the merlin, mountain hare, emperor moth and green hairstreak butterfly. ‘Muirburn’ – the deliberate burning of areas of mature heather to create a mosaic of differing ages and varying heights of heather – benefits many species. The new shoots and variety of structures in a well-managed moor provide food and cover for birds, mammals and insects.
The many reservoirs in the Pentlands are especially good for wildfowl. Westwater (Walk 14) is a Ramsar site (a wetland of international importance), especially significant for thousands of pink-footed geese in the winter. Threipmuir (Walk 7) has mallard, teal, whooper swan and great crested grebe, and North Esk has a noisy colony of black-headed gulls. Smaller ponds support colourful insects such as the large red damselfly and common hawker dragonfly, as well as common frogs and palmate and smooth newts.
Looking over Loganlea Reservoir to Carnethy Hill and Turnhouse Hill (Walk 29)
Grasslands are home to brown hares, short-eared owls, the common shrew and meadow brown butterfly.
The Pentlands are not heavily wooded – there are a few conifer plantations, and the 19th-century shelter belts and woodlands surrounding reservoirs support birds such as the willow warbler, crossbill, goldcrest and sparrowhawk.
Fungi are often overlooked, or in some cases destroyed by people, but they play a vital role in recycling nutrients in a woodland or grassland. They are a fascinating group of organisms in their own right, and to discover more about them, visit www.britmycolsoc.org.uk.
Patches of gorse scrub are good places to find stonechats and whinchats, as well as robins and wrens, and rocky screes are the haunt of common lizards, which bask in the sun.
Bogs and marsh are where plants and animals specially adapted to their surroundings can be found. Insectivorous plants such as round-leaved sundew and common butterwort grow on damp ground, and obtain essential nutrients from the flies and beetles they trap.
There is usually some wildlife interest at any time of year on the walks described.
Cauliflower fungus at base of Scots pine (Walk 6)
WALK 1
A capital view
| Start/Finish | Hillend car park (NT249669) |
| Distance | 5.5km |
| Total Ascent | 390m |
| Time | 2hr |
| Maps | Ordnance Survey Landranger 66 or Ordnance Survey Explorer 344 |
A short, and in places steep, walk rewarded with magnificent views across the city and surrounding hill ranges. Excellent on a crisp winter’s day when time and light are short.
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