Capelaw Hill, and return to Swanston via Bonaly, Torduff Reservoir and Dreghorn.)
5 Take the stony track north down Howden Glen until you reach a stone building, Green Craig Cistern. The infant Howden Burn – ‘the burn of the howe den’ (from holh meaning hollow and den meaning valley) – rises in Howden Glen.
Green Craig Cistern was constructed in 1790 and engraved on the door lintel is ‘Edinburgh Thomas Elder Praefect MDCCIXC’. Thomas Elder of Forneth was lord provost of Edinburgh from 1788 to 1790.
To the east of Green Craig Cistern, on the northern slopes of Allermuir Hill, is a rocky outcrop at 260m. It was here, in 1886, in a cleft in the rocks known as the Reindeer Cave, that a number of animal bones were found by RA Macfie, owner of Dreghorn Castle and Redford House. Most of the bones were reindeer, but there were also wolf, fox and horse. Speculation as to the identity of the carnivore that left them here has ranged from a hyena to a wolf.
T Wood with Edinburgh beyond
6 From Green Craig Cistern take the path to the right that skirts the foot of the hill, passing the aptly named Smithy Cleuch (from the Scots smailly, meaning ‘narrow’), and keeping by the plantations until you reach the path that threads along by Long Plantation at NT230676. This point is about 1km from Green Craig Cistern.
7 Go over a stile (or through the gate) straight ahead onto a wide track, which tucks in behind Torgeith Knowe, and some gas installation buildings on your left and a golf course on your right. Follow the track until you come to a large whitewashed house to your left, set in mature gardens – this is Swanston Cottage. From Swanston Cottage continue past a small lodge house on your left and the livery yard on your right. Return to the car park by walking past some converted farm buildings (now offices) and turning right when you reach the road, slightly up the hill.
Swanston Cottage, and indeed the area around the hamlet, has strong associations with Robert Louis Stevenson. The house was built in the late 18th century as a general meeting place for the Edinburgh city fathers. A second storey was added in 1835, the thatched roof replaced with slate, and bow windows built. Thomas Stevenson, Robert Louis’ father, took the summer tenancy of the house in 1867. The cottage and surroundings became the setting for many of Stevenson’s novels and poems, including St Ives and The Pentland Rising.
The Reindeer Cave at Green Craig
WALK 3
Hill, moor and wood
| Start/Finish | Dreghorn car park (NT228679) |
| Distance | 7km (including a circuit of the reservoir) |
| Total Ascent | 225m |
| Time | 2hr |
| Maps | Ordnance Survey Landranger 66 or Ordnance Survey Explorer 344 |
Wooded areas contrast sharply with open hill and moorland. This is a walk of variety, through a mosaic of habitats, with the opportunity to enjoy good views in fine weather.
1 Start from Dreghorn car park, just off the A720 at Dreghorn junction (NT228679). From the car park, go east towards the road entrance that you entered by and take the track that heads towards the hills. There is a signpost: ‘Castlelaw by the Howden Glen, with the co-operation of the landowner’.
Follow this track, which is tarmac in places, passing a copse of trees on a knoll called Chucklie (mistakenly) or Chuckie (correctly) Knowe. (The 1852 OS map shows a quarry here, and ‘chuckie’ is the Scots word for pebble.)
Capital views from the drystone seat commemorating the centenary of World War 1
The place names in this area are interesting. Dreghorn is recorded as ‘Dregerne’ in 1240, ‘Dregarne’ in 1374 and ‘Dragorn’ in 1682. The name is British, from dre, ‘the farm’, and gronn, ‘a bog’. Capelaw Hill is part Celtic, ceap meaning ‘pointed hill’ (also referring to the Kips) and part Anglian, law also meaning ‘conical hill’. The 1794 Statistical Account applies the name Capelaw to Allermuir Hill. For a full description of place names refer to S Harris’s The Place Names of Edinburgh, Their Origins and History (see bibliography).
Keep on the track, crossing a broken gate, fording a small burn and heading on the track up a grassy area until you eventually cross a bridge and reach a small stone building, Green Craig Cistern.
‘Edinburgh Thomas Elder Praefect MDCCIXC’ is carved on the lintel of Green Craig Cistern. Thomas Elder of Forneth was lord provost of Edinburgh from 1788 to 1790, and the construction of a water pipeline to supply the city was begun during his tenure.
Green Craig Cistern, with Arthur’s Seat in the distance
Go past the cistern and head up a grassy track to the southwest. Much of the gorse has been cleared to allow native trees and shrubs to be planted, and to enable the planting of the First World War Centenary Wood, opened by the Princess Royal on 23 May 2015. There is a lovely drystone seat with magnificent views over Edinburgh.
2 Remain on the track as it climbs up the slope of White Hill (not named on OS66) and keep to it on rising ground that can be boggy in places.
3 As the ground levels out you will reach a tumbled-down drystane dyke and you may need to pick your way through the rushes alongside the dyke and fence. Keep on this path until you reach a cattle-grid and gate at NT217665.
Pick up a path that goes right, to the plantation around Bonaly Reservoir. Follow the fence and drystane dyke on your right until you reach a gate. Go through the gate and walk straight ahead downhill for a few metres, where there is a signpost indicating Bonaly.
4 Follow the path to Bonaly and you will see Bonaly Reservoir on the left. A pleasant diversion is to walk around the perimeter of the reservoir, picking out a narrow path that starts by the plantation (this is included in the 7km distance for this walk).
The present Bonaly Reservoir was constructed in 1851 to replace two smaller reservoirs, built in 1789 when Edinburgh’s expanding New Town was placing greater demands on the water supply. In 1786 the town council drew up plans to create two ponds at Bonaly, and after a prolonged court case these reservoirs were built. The abandoned dam at NT212663, to the northeast of the present dam, is a relic of the first reservoir. The present-day reservoir was constructed on the site of the second reservoir.
Back at the point from which you made your diversion round the reservoir, there is a good track leading downhill towards the woodlands of lower Bonaly Country Park.
An area of heather moorland lies to the west of the track, and curlew, skylark, meadow pipit and red grouse are heard and sometimes seen here. The views across to the Ochils and beyond are spectacular on a clear day. To the east, Dean Burn cuts its way down a steep rocky gorge. The ungrazed slopes are where juniper, rowan and birch grow, and common blue butterflies feed in sunny spots in summer.
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