The sun was starting to sink above Bleak Law as we reached the spot, turning the harsh light of day into a softer, golden veil. All around us the moor was flushed with purple heather and hazy hills were layered to the horizon. Only Tinto stood out as a defined peak, reminding us how these western extremities of the Pentlands creep towards Lanarkshire. We were soaking up this view from the flank of Black Law hill, an isolated, barren place but for a single gravestone facing the evening sun. We'd walked a fair distance to get here, a spot I'd wanted to visit before lockdown put the hills out of bounds. The stone is the Covenanter’s Grave and its story is a poignant one.
In 1666, a small Covenanter army had risen in south-west
Scotland and then advanced towards Edinburgh in an attempt to win support. On 28 November 1666 at the eastern end of the Pentland Hills, they clashed with a superior
Government army in the Battle of Rullion Green. The Covenanters were defeated
and those caught, were hanged. One Covenanter, his name unknown, escaped despite
being mortally wounded. He headed westwards to try to make his way home to
Ayrshire. He was suffering badly from his wounds when he knocked on the door of
a shepherd called Adam Sanderson who lived near Black Law. At risk to his own
life, the shepherd let him rest in his barn. Knowing he was seriously ill, the
Covenanter asked that if the shepherd should find him dead in the morning,
would he bury him in sight of the Ayrshire hills, the land of his childhood.
Sure enough, the next morning, Adam Sanderson found him dead. The shepherd
carried his body up Black Law and buried him on its western slope. Almost 400
years later, we stood by the grave that summer’s evening and looked west. We could indeed make out the Ayrshire hills in the distance.
Having lingered a while by the grave, we continued up the
hill a little further to look for a camp spot. We soon found a perfect patch of
grass amongst the heather and got our tents up. The long days of midsummer have
passed now so the sun quickly dipped below Darlees Rig, though the evening
stayed warm. It was wonderful to be out in the hills again after lockdown, enjoying
the simple pleasures of nursing a mug of tea and wrapping up in a sleeping bag
before drifting off to sleep.
Next morning, we unzipped the tents to a grey day with low
cloud that soaked the tents despite there being no rain. After breakfast, we
packed up and walked south, past the Covenanter’s Grave again then over Cairn
Knowe. So villainous was the bog here that marker posts have been laid to help
guide you across it. Nonetheless we jumped from tussock to tussock in lots of
places to avoid the squelchy stuff.
As we drew close to Garvald, we were grateful to reach a firmer path that took us back towards West Linton. Given how well it was constructed and how it connected the settlements here, I guessed it was a route of some antiquity that had perhaps been used by generations of farmers and drovers.
That sense of the past was heightened as we walked further through the glen
where we saw the huge, stone cairns of ancient burial chambers. They reminded
us that it’s not only the Covenanter who is spending eternity in these hills.
Info: The inscription on the stone reads: "To the memory of a Covenanter who fought and was wounded at Rullion Green, 28 November 1666, and who died at Oaken Bush the day after the battle and was buried here by Adam Sanderson of Blackhill". The gravestone in place today on Black Law was erected in 1841. The original stone that marked the grave is now held in Dolphinton Parish Church, a few miles to the south.