Saturday 11 July 2015

The 5 Peaks Of The Pentland Ridge

A couple of mid week days off from work & finally the weather was in my favour to conquer the 5 peaks of the Pentland ridge in the beautiful Pentland Hills which are located in the south west of Edinburgh.
Loading up the van & scoffing down a quick sugar hit breakfast of bananas on wholemeal toast drenched with honey I set off on my mission mid morning.

Arriving at the Flotterstone information centre, helmet on, backpack on & now it was time to release the beast ! 




A short bit of road work on a very gradual climb to get the blood up to operating temperature, passing by the Glencorse trout fishery as I went. Looking westwards along the Pentland ridge on the bottom picture. 


Still forestry work being carried out within the park & the bottom picture is the charred remains just along the tree line of a controlled fire, burning the waste scrub from the forestry work that got out of hand & spread for 500 metres, it took at least 35 fire fighters nearly 12 hours to get the fire under control. 








From Glencorse reservoir I continued to follow the Logan Burn up the hill to Loganlea reservoir, my all time favourite fishing venue, I've had some brilliant days fly fishing here for trout & a long overdue trip back is soon required I think.
 The Pentland ridge for the time being runs parallel with the two reservoirs here below their steep slopes & the amount of times that I've sat in a boat here at Loganlea while fishing away optimistic of  catching lots & hopefully a big trout looking up & thinking to myself that one day I want to go up onto that ridge & now finally today is that day !


Leaving the waters edge of the Loganlea reservoir but still following the route upstream of the Logan Burn as it carves it's way through the rock with the hills of Hare Hill & Black Hill on either sides of it's banks.

A nice contrast of the flowering purple heather amongst the stone scree slopes of Black Hill.


Arriving at Bavelaw castle to complete a u-turn then head up into the hills nearer to my goal...

...But before that I wanted to pick up a geocache which was on my route, this one hidden inside a 35mm film container & then hidden inside a very convincing aged & weathered home made stone.


Back on the trail again & into the wilderness up what's called the Red Road.

Stopping off for another geocache in another convincing home made stone hidden within the heather. When I plan my cycle routes I check if there are any geocaches along or are nearby my chosen route, I then programme them into my GPS device which then alerts me when I'm near a geocache & from there I can home in & pin point it's location.


The Pentland's offer some good fun tracks to cycle along with amazing scenery to enjoy too.


From here the ridge looked quite daunting but I love the challenge of hard work climbing big hills & couldn't wait to get up there.





Arriving at & starting to climb the first of the 5 peaks this one being the West Kip.
The West Kip conquered & looking eastwards along towards the next four to do.



From the West Kip looking north, south, east & west. 
Hard to imagine that these pictures are taken from the outskirts of Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh !
The 2nd target in my sights the East Kip.
From the East Kip looking back along to the West Kip. 


From the lofty peak of the East Kip looking down below to Loganlea reservoir which looks very very small from up here, a lonesome rambler enjoying the views while eating his dinner & looking to the 3rd peak & the Pentland's highest peak Scald Law





After a good hard climb of which I was pleased to have cycled up most of it, I finally make it to the top of Scald Law the Pentland Hills highest peak at a lofty 579 metres & also the reward of bagging another trig point.
The views from all the summits so far have been very impressive to say the least & I'd like to see the same views during the winter months when the day's are crisp & clear during the cold frosty days.


While up here on Scald Law I picked up another geocache hidden behind the rocks.




Setting off to the 4th peak of Carnethy Hill with again Loganlea below & this time a photo that is not zoomed in & from up here it is nothing more than a puddle although it is 70 ft deep at the dam end.
Stopping for a breather at the bottom of the hill before the ascent up to Carnethy Hill the descent from Scald Law was totally amazing as seen in the bottom picture, really rocky at some points & quite technical so you need to have your wits about you or you will be over the bars & end up with broken bones for sure, the new dropper seatpost really came into it's own here, money well spent in my opinion.





The rocky cairn & summit of Carnethy Hill apart from the final & last peak of the day Turnhouse Hill all the hard work is now done I felt quite gutted that I only had one more peak to achieve I was having so much enjoyment with the stunning views, the hard climbs & unbelievably amazing downhills I could of kept going for many more.
A good view looking down to the extent of damage caused with the afore mentioned fire that got out of control, I bet it was some sight to see from up here. 





Now on the 5th & final peak Turnhouse Hill & from here it's all downhill right back down to the Flotterstone information centre, but first a wee look back towards Carnethy Hill before I drop over the edge.




All that hard work climbing up & down the hills this last long downhill was a reward that made it all worth while :-)


Having to stop now & then to allow walkers to pass by but most of them were only too happy to stand to the side & wave me through, one guy was even filming me bombing down the hill.



One final wee photo shoot with a beautiful model posing seductively in the bosom of nature before the final short run off the slopes & back to the van.


From the bottom looking back up hill to Turnhouse Hill & it's some length of un-broken descent that seemed to be over in a flash.





...Game Over...
Iv'e not had such an enjoyable day out in a while, with technical downhills as steep as that, it's every bit as good fun as what you would have at a trail centre, it will not be the last time that I will be up here that for sure, so after a few attempts I finally managed to have a blast along the Pentland ridge & it was awesome !

Hope you enjoyed the ride
thanks for coming 
bye for now.











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