Raasay - Treading time

Raasay is a small island, 14 miles long north to south, that lies east of its neighbouring island of Skye. My journey there from home by bus and then ferry, for a few days of walking and camping, took an incredible ten hours. But it was a gorgeous journey marked by stunning transitions. Central belt city gave way to rolling countryside which was overtaken by the rugged mountains, coast and sea of the West Highlands. Then finally a boat journey across a choppy, frothy sea so you can feel you have truly left the rest of the world behind. Raasay is a lovely wee island, scattered with stuff from the past so you feel that it's ever present. Here are my highlights from my second visit in a grey, murky March week.

Calum’s Road

Since reading Roger Hutchinson’s book “Calum’s Road”, the place has risen to legendary status in my mind and yet, I missed getting up there on my first visit to Raasay. So this time I made the long walk north. 

If you don’t know the story it goes like this. Calum Macleod lived in northern Raasay in the small hamlet of Arnish. He was a crofter and part-time postman and lighthouse keeper. There was no road to Arnish, just a footpath. Concerned that this was leading to the de-population of the north of the island, Calum and the other local inhabitants campaigned for decades for a new road but were refused. Eventually Calum built the road himself, using not much more than a spade, a wheelbarrow and a road-building manual that he had purchased. In ten years he laid just under two miles of road to link Arnish to the main road on the island. Several years after Calum finished his road, the Council eventually adopted it and surfaced it with tarmac. At that time Calum and his wife Lexie were the last inhabitants of Arnish and when he died in 1988, Calum was taken away from Arnish by hearse on the very road that he’d built. 

A remarkable and moving story. You might think a sad ending but it's not so. A walk through Arnish today reveals six well-kept houses, three of them currently occupied and one with a young family. I know this because I passed the boy being driven to and from the primary school in the south of the island as I walked along Calum's Road. 

The delights of northern Raasay extend beyond Arnish. A stunning walk through stunted birch woods hugs the coast and takes you to the tidal causeway that links Raasay with another island, Fladday. Its three white-washed cottages stand proud against the elements. Imagine living there – an island that’s off an island that’s off another island!

The path to Inver

About halfway down the west coast of Raasay, a footpath leaves the main road, which is all single track by the way, and heads to the sea. En route, it follows a river as it passes through more of Raasay’s typical stunted birch woods. Soon you are wrapped up in the trees. It’s a quiet place, the woods providing shelter from the ever-present winds. The trees are covered with a myriad of different mosses and lichens, and overhang little waterfalls and pools. The boulders of a stone-built single-room dwelling are half hidden by vegetation as the structure is gradually smothered by nature. If you were a child, you would imagine that fairies live here. Where the river joins the sea, you are suddenly tossed out of the woods onto a wild, pebble beach with a white-frothed sea offshore and a sliver of a view to Skye.

Dun Cana

Dun Cana is Raasay’s only significant peak and it’s only 443m high but nonetheless, it’s a wee bit special. An extinct volcano, it has a bizarre outline with a flat, cut-off top and a band of cliffs that look like a pie crust. Given its splendid isolation from any other hill for miles around, the top is reputed to have a sensational 360 degree panorama of mountains, seas and islands. In two visits to the top in murky weather, I can only vouch for the view to Skye where the Black and Red Cuillin form an undulating line of rock on the westerly horizon.

Hallaig

If ever there was a place that gave you goosebumps, that made you linger and ponder the past, it is Hallaig. An old, old path leaves the last of the white cottages at Fearns and skirts round the southeast edge of Raasay. Above are tall, imposing limestone cliffs and below an angry sea, whipped up by a strong westerly. Once again, the path enters Raasay’s birch woods then clings precariously to the slope before popping out the other side to cleared land and the remains of lazy beds. Dun Cana rises dramatically above you here and on your right the sea stretches to the hills of the Applecross Peninsula. 

There’s a large, square drystone enclosure and dotted about the hillside, the remains of stone-built houses, gradually being reclaimed by nature. It’s like a miniature Machu Pichu. But there is one dwelling that is incredibly intact, bar a roof and windows, and its wholeness makes it so much easier to imagine the past and the people who lived here. 

Hallaig was Raasay’s largest settlement before the appalling Highland Clearances, that most disgraceful episode in our history when tenant farmers were forcibly evicted from their land. Walking through the rooms of the house, the wind whistling through the empty doorway, the sea growling below and Dun Cana rising above, you feel the presence of the past. Sorley MacLean, the Gaelic poet, was born on Raasay and on a cairn near to Hallaig are beautifully inscribed the words of his poem, Hallaig. I’ll finish with his opening words:

Time, the deer, is in the Wood of Hallaig.

The window is nailed and boarded 

through which I saw the West.

Fact File

More photos on Flickr - click HERE.

Start/finish: Ferry port, Raasay

Public transport: Citylink bus Glasgow to Skye stops at Sconser from where the Raasay ferry leaves regularly throughout the day.

My routes: From the ferry, followed the road round to the right towards the village, Inverarish. At the first fork in the road, stayed left and same again at the next one. Just after here on the right, the track called the Burma Road is signed. Followed that to the top and a path to Dun Cana is signed from here. Path ascends boggy ground and then passes along the top of a rocky escarpment before dropping down to Loch Na Meilich and continuing to the top of Dun Cana. When I returned to the escarpment, I didn't retrace my steps but took a path that heads northwest and joins the road further north. Walked the road to Brochel but just before, as the roads drops steeply, took a forest track to the ruined settlement of Screapadal which made a great camp spot for two nights. Walked on Calum's Road from Brochel to Arnish and continued on the dirt track beyond. Took the first footpath signed to the right and at the next path junction turned left towards Fladday. This makes a lovely circular walk from Arnish. Walking back down the island, the path to Inver starts on the right at Brae. For Hallaig, walked the road to Fearns which continues as a track then path to Hallaig. As well as these routes, there are many wonderful forest walks in the Inverarish area which filled a whole day. Look out for the Forestry Commission leaflet in the ferry terminal.

Info: My photos may look overlay atmospheric - I had very grey weather on Raasay with no decent light so used a creative function on the camera to enhance the pics a bit. The Community Shop in Inverarish is very well stocked, including some gluten free items. 

Badenoch - Abracadabra

Badenoch is a well known area for me so here were a few days wandering familiar trails, enjoying the place mostly to myself before the busy season begins at Easter. And a chance to grab the tail end of this winter.

The first day was grey, still and clagged in with low cloud. There was not a stitch of snow bar what was perhaps hiding in the clouds on the higher tops. Linked to the train station and encircling the village of Newtonmore, is a wonderful route called the Wildcat Trail. It was a day for walking that route which has great variety to keep your interest when the big hills are hidden. The path starts by following the banks of the Spey which is already a significant river here despite its source being only a little further west from Newtonmore. The path then turns north, away from the river, and wanders across the moors. My favourite section is where the route passes through old birch woods high above the village. On a grey, quiet day with nobody else around there’s a prehistroic atmosphere to the place such that you imagine a pterodactyl might come swooping through the trees.

A pleasant offshoot of the Wildcat Trail is the quiet road up Glen Banchor and I pitched my tent beyond the road end, by the river. A favourite spot. When I unzipped the tent next morning, it was as if some magician had waved a wand during the night and said “Abracadabra”. The place was transformed from spring to winter by a blanket of fresh snow. A westerly gale scoured the hills, shifting yesterday’s low cloud and revealing a stunning panorama of snow-covered peaks in the golden hour of morning sunshine.   

That gale put me off my chosen hill about two-thirds of the way up as I was almost knocked off my feet in the gusts. A lower top had to do this time. Even then, it was a struggle to stay upright in the icy blasts. But the views were superb of winter hills and weather fronts that brought in fresh blizzards of snow, moving over the hills and engulfing everything in their path, including me. 

The snow showers persisted until the evening when I met my friend off the late train. As the skies cleared, we walked out into the black night under a sky sparkling with stars and pitched the tents on a snow-covered meadow by a bend in the river.

The last day saw us set out from Newtonmore in heavy snow to walk over the moors to Kingussie. Big, wet flurries  were ever at our backs. With a blanket of fresh snow, the old woods were monochrome that morning. 

As the trail approached Loch Gynack, tucked away in the craggy hills above Kingussie, the snow underfoot ended and the world magically returned to the mossy greens and purple birch of the first day. An ice-covered path climbed up steeply through the birch then crossed open ground to deposit us on the top of Creag Bheag. It’s a favourite wee hill of mine with a great view. But not today as snow-laden clouds piled through the valley.

Oh for a bit of magic now to clear it away.

Fact File

Start: Newtonmore Train Station

Finish: Kingussie Train Station
Public transport: Edinburgh/Glasgow to Inverness trains stop at Newtonmore and Kingussie

My route: Out of the train station, walk up Station Road towards the village but after the row of cottages on the left, the link to the Wildcat Trail is signed to the left. Follow this across the railway and down to the river where it joins the Wildcat Trail proper. The Wildcat Trail is well signed and encircles the countryside around the village. At the northwest corner of the trail, it joins the road up Glen Banchor. The tarmac road in Glen Banchor ends at a parking place but a dirt track continues west and gives acces to the hills. I only climbed the tiny top of Creag nan Abhag that day in the winds but it afforded great views. I used a faint track initially that leaves to the right just after the copse of trees on a knoll just after the bridge below the road end. For the walk to Creag Bheag, we used the Wildcat Trail to Strone and then took the track signed for Kingussie which ascends to the forestry ahead on the hill before swinging east to Loch Gynack. In the trees at Loch Gynack, there is a signpost for Creag Bheag and trails down into Kingussie.

Tips: Sit-in fishers suppers, including gluten-free, at Joe's in Kingussie at the main crossroads. 

Inverclyde and Cumbrae - Who'd have thought

With a plan to get into some different outdoor areas of Scotland this year, I recently bought a batch of new OS maps to fill in some gaps in my collection. I even bought the Glasgow OS map. I did think I’d made a mistake when it arrived though, as there didn’t seem to be much outdoors on it. However, I did spot a dotted green line of cycle path heading off the southwest corner of the map which joined up with another on my new Inverclyde map. The green dotted line headed a long way south through Renfrewshire, quite close to the commuter belt and outlying towns around Glasgow. Despite that, it looked very inviting and therefore a plan was hatched with bike buddy Graham for our next cycle trip.

Our urban starting point was the train station at Port Glasgow. A fantastically steep climb here took us up to the cycle route along the Greenock and Johnstone Railway Path which passed high above the waters of the River Clyde. It was marvellous up here. In the February heatwave the views were a bit hazy but it must be great on a crisp, clear day when the view will extend to the Southern Highlands. The cycle route headed east towards Glasgow and then swung south for Kilbirnie passing along the pretty shores of Castle Semple Loch and all the while in a lovely traffic-free tunnel of trees.  We were never far from towns and the massive conurbation of Glasgow, so we were surprised how rural the route actually felt. 

The hazy sunshine gave way to spots of rain which soon organised themselves into a bit of a downpour as we approached Lochwinnoch. There was a great café here to sit out the rain and judging by the numbers of bikes propped against the wall outside, it’s a very popular spot with cyclists using this route. When the rain eventually went off late afternoon, we made the long climb above Lochwinnoch up into Muirshiel Country Park. There was a perfect wild camp spot by the river with a shelter and picnic tables, a few hundred yards away from the road end. I would never use a spot like this during summer but at the end of a wet, early dark day in February there was nobody else around. As we busied ourselves making temporary homes for the night, the gush of the river was a backdrop to the hooting of owls. After dark the view of the stars was superb. Again a surprise, given the nearby sources of light pollution.

Back on the bikes next morning, we cycled to the end of the path at Kilbirnie and made a mistake taking the A road over the hills to join the west coast at Largs. Given it was Sunday morning, we had thought it would be quiet but it was fast, quite busy and downright unpleasant. There is a longer quiet minor road as an alternative and I made a note to self to use that next time. There were two reasons for heading over to Largs. Firstly, from here the map showed a tiny, unclassified road though the hills back to our train at Port Glasgow. And secondly, it gave us the opportunity to take a short ferry ride to an island neither of us had visited, Cumbrae. 

I had always imagined Cumbrae and its main settlement, Millport, to be quite twee and genteel. And in some ways that was true. But what blew me away about the place was that it also has very rugged surroundings that imparted a whole different atmosphere to the island. All around was the rough, crenelated coastline of the land and a sparkling sea where other islands, such as Bute and Little Cumbrae, drifted offshore. And the stunning backdrop to all this was the jagged, mountain ridge of Goat Fell and Cir Mhor on the island of Arran. The other wonderful thing about Cumbrae is the lack of cars so you can really enjoy the circular cycle around the island, taking in all these stunning views and stopping for a picnic on one of the beaches.

After a dreamy few hours in the sunshine of Cumbrae, we took the ferry back to Largs to pick up the wee road through the hills. This was another wonderful route with only a few slow-moving cars. About halfway up the road, we found another great wild camp spot at a picnic area in the trees and enjoyed a relaxed evening sipping soup and cups of tea at the tents. 

It wasn’t far from our camp spot next morning to continue over the watershed of the hills and return to Port Glasgow. Our route took us along lovely quiet farm roads and forest tracks that hugged the shores of huge reservoirs and undulated over gentle, rolling hills. Snowdrops were everywhere in big clumps and yellow daffodils burst from the hedgerows. 

It had been a brilliant trip with great routes and surprisingly stunning views of coast, islands and mountains. Who’d have thought at first glance at the maps that would have been the case.

Fact File

Start/finish: Train station, Port Glasgow

Public Transport: Train from Glasgow Central Station

Route: Out of the station we turned left up the hill, took a right on Kinross Avenue then a left on Barr’s Brae which the cycle route crosses. This is National Cycle Route 75 which we followed to Kilbirnie. We used the A760 from Kilbirnie to Largs – not recommended. On Cumbrae a road encircles the island and another climbs across the middle. Took the C41 out of Largs to Loch Thom. Made a wee detour to Cornalees Bridge, a nice spot with a visitor centre for the Greenock Cut and a café. Cycled along east shore of Loch Thom then a forest track along the south shore of Gryfe Reservoirs which joined a lovely wee farm road that took us to the B788. We turned left then right to rejoin the cycle path back into Port Glasgow.

Info: Great coffee shops in Lochwinnoch (The Junction) and Quarriers Village (Three Sisters Bakery). Quarriers Village is well worth the detour. It’s a very pretty village founded in 1876 as The Orphan Homes of Scotland by shoemaker and philanthropist William Quarrier.

Garleton Hills - I've been there

Few little hills that I know of pack the punch of the Garleton Hills in East Lothian. These small pimples above Athelstaneford have a wonderfully isolated situation such that the 360 degree views are superb. At least they were on a crisp, clear February day when I jumped off the North Berwick train at Drem to tackle the hills. They were the last hills that I hadn’t climbed that I can see on my local horizon from Portobello. 

The folding bike transported me from Drem to Athelstaneford along a pleasant network of paths and farm tracks. They rose gently to the wooded ridge of Kilduff Hill before dropping down again into the village. Athelstaneford is the birthplace of the Scottish flag, the Saltire. The story goes that on the morning of a battle between the Scots and the English in 832AD, the Scots saw a white cross formed by clouds in the sky. Winning the battle, the Scottish forces attributed their victory to the blessing of Saint Andrew, adopted Saint Andrew's cross as their flag, and named him their patron saint. 

A footpath sneaked out the far side of the village and crossed a field before dropping to the pretty gorge of the Cogtail Burn. Morning light flooded the woods here and illuminated swathes of snowdrops. The path climbed again and it was beyond here that the views started to open up as a track ascended the spine of the hills beyond the farm at Barney Mains. Walking across the top here, there’s an incredible sense of openness, space and big skies. These hills are made of layered volcanic rock subsequently scoured by glaciers. The highest point is only 186m but the panorama took in the Lomond Hills across the Forth to the north, the Pentland Hills and Edinburgh to the west, the Lammermuirs to the south and to the east was North Berwick Law and the Bass Rock. I could even see the Isle of May. 

The most immediate view from here however is to the adjacent Byres Hill which hosts the impressive Hopetoun Monument. Returning to the village, I jumped back on the bike to cycle round there. Byres Hill was very different to Barney Mains. Its paths were wrapped up in a dense cloak of shady woods that stole the sense of space. But they were beautiful woods, dappled by sunshine, alive with birdsong and echoing with the shouts and giggles of children playing amongst the trees. A steep path that catches the breath pulled up through the trees to the base of the Monument. It was erected in 1824 in memory of John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, and is 29m high. If you bring a torch, you can go up inside. 

Back on the bike, I pedalled hard to make the early afternoon train home so I had time before the early dark of February to sit on the prom and look east to the Garleton Hills. Finally I’d come to know those little pimples on the horizon and say “I’ve been there”.

Fact File

More photos on Flickr
Start/finish: Drem train station

Public transport: Edinburgh to North Berwick train stops at Drem.

My route: Out of the station turned left then left again onto an unclassified back road which crosses the railway line. Where it crosses there is farm road straight ahead running south to Kilduff Hill. Kept left heading east when it reached the woods. 1km further on a junction is signed for Athelstaneford. Turned left when this path joined the road and cycled along the main street of the village. Up the east side of the school the path for the Garleton Hills is signed. Chained up the bike here. Path dropped to the Cogtail Burn and then climbed to join a farm track. Turned right on the track to the top of the hill, skirting the farm at Barney Mains to the left side and then picking up the track again. The route around the farm was signed and easy to follow. From Athelstaneford cycled west along the quiet B1343 and just before it joined the A6137, Byres Hill was signposted. Paths up the hill were obvious.

Musselburgh - Pinkie Cleugh Battlefield Walk

I’ve been battling a niggly flu bug through January and early February so my outdoor activities have been limited to gentle, local walks. This did give me the opportunity to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a wee while now and explore the Pinkie Cleugh battlefield site in nearby Musselburgh. I dragged Graham along too on a sunny late afternoon.

The battle of Pinkie Cleugh took place on 10 September 1547 and is said to be the last great battle between Scotland and England. It’s also notable for the first hand-held firearms being used alongside bows and arrows. We started our walk at the Roman Bridge in Musselburgh which crosses the River Esk. The bridge standing today is not Roman and dates from 700 years ago but it’s thought that there was an earlier crossing here in Roman times. We walked across its cobbled arches, imagining the soldiers’ feet that also passed this way hundreds of years before us as they crossed the river to do battle, leaving behind their Scottish camp to the southwest.

Our route briefly passed through modern Musselburgh before we were plunged back into the past on a delightful old lane that led up to St Michael’s Church. Its old stonework glowed golden in the late afternoon sunshine as its tall spire soared into the blue sky. At the top of the church steps, we turned right and walked along a grassy ridge known as Oliver’s Mount, once the site of an ancient fortification and the location for the English artillery during the battle. Despite living close by, I hadn’t stood here before and was quite blown away by the stunning view. Fife’s Lomond Hills stretched out to the north beyond the waters of the Firth of Forth which were a deep blue to match the sky. To the west Arthur’s Seat rose above the city and beyond that were the distant Ochil Hills, capped with snow.

We lingered a while over the view then dropped off the ridge and walked through the pretty village of Inveresk with its charming cottages and grand mansions. Beyond the last of the houses, the road became a track which continued to the battlefield site. The sun dipped lower, casting the last of its rays across the land and I squinted to look over the place. 

It was here that the Scottish army was defeated by the English who advanced from Wallyford to the east. 10,000 of them lost their lives that day which is hard to imagine. Ahead of us was a low ridge called St Mary’s Mount where 20 years after the battle of Pinkie Cleugh, Mary Queen of Scots gathered another 2000 troops who fought a similar-sized army of Confederate Lords. But she was defeated and surrendered, being imprisoned in Edinburgh and then Loch Leven.

The sun was setting now with a final flourish of gold, so we turned our backs on history and used the last of the day’s light to walk back down into modern Musselburgh where we re-crossed the River Esk on our bus home.

Fact File

Start: Roman Bridge, Musselburgh

Finish: Musselburgh High Street
Public transport: Lothian Buses 26 and 44 go to Musselburgh from Edinburgh city centre. Get off at the first stop after crossing the river and walk upstream to the Roman Bridge.

Route: Click this LINK for full route details and background info.

Lomond Hills - Raw

Raw is the word that describes that early January day in Fife’s Lomond Hills. Not just in terms of the weather. There was also something raw about the landscape laid out before us. 

On the coldest morning of the winter so far, my friend Graham and I ambled through the quaint, narrow streets of the ancient village of Falkland, passing its royal palace and rows of pretty cottages. Beyond the village, we turned up the beautiful gorge of Maspie Den. If it had been cold in the village, then it was absolutely raw here where the cold air had sunk and settled in the den’s narrow confines. The stream through the gorge was frozen at its edges but mostly continued to flow, babbling gently under the many bridges that criss-crossed its course. At the head of the glen, we passed behind the stream’s waterfall and the long icicles overhanging the lip. 

Beyond Maspie Den our path climbed up onto the bealach between the peaks of West and East Lomond, the two most prominent tops in the Lomond Hills.  In climbing up we left the lower freezing air and reached the weak, winter sunshine that bathed the land in rich morning light. Finally, gloves could be removed without instant numbness. We made the long walk out to West Lomond which was gradual at first but finished with a short, steep finale onto the top. 

From West Lomond, I looked over to East Lomond and the long escarpment on which both peaks sit. The view was perfect on such a clear, crisp day. Much like the last walk to Binny Craig, the landscape appeared to me so raw and elemental. I could really see the nature of the land, its character and formation. The Lomond Hills are volcanic in origin. It seemed easy that day to appreciate their turbulent past in the ruggedness of the escarpment which was a massive, rocky, lumpy upswelling rising suddenly and incongruously from the genteel patchwork of the farmland surrounding it. 

Despite the sunshine, it was still too cold to linger on the top, so we set out on the long walk to East Lomond at the other end of the escarpment. Having lived in Fife for a number of years, I’ve walked in the Lomond Hills many times but it was Graham’s first visit. He was quite amazed at how far apart the two peaks were because, like me these days, he is used the distant view of the hills across the Firth of Forth from Portobello. They don’t look too far apart from Porty! But the long walk eventually put us on the top of East Lomond. 

After a flurry of photos, we dropped off the hill’s steep north side to head back down into Falkland and back down into the cold, raw air of the morning. 

Fact File

All the photos on Flickr - click HERE
Start/finish: Falkland, Fife

Public transport: For the January trip used Graham's car because of the short winter days but when I did this walk previously I used the train from Edinburgh to Markinch then cycled to the start at Falkland, about 10 miles along nice, quiet back roads.

My route: From the fountain in the centre of Falkland continued walking west along the main street which eventually left the village then passed through the gates of Falkland Estate. Shortly after, the path up Maspie Den is signed to the left. At the top of the path, passed behind the waterfall and when the den path meets another path, turned left and continued uphill. This path reaches the bealach between East and West Lomond. For West Lomond, after the gate and drystone wall took the wide grassy path to the right which is an obvious route to the top of West Lomond. Returned to the bealach, crossed the wee road that passes between the hills and picked up the obvious track on the other side along the north edge of the trees to East Lomond. From the top of East Lomond took the path that heads steeply northeast down the hill into the forest and eventually pops out in Falkland.

West Lothian - Where have you Binny all my life?

You can’t say this blog doesn’t take you to some exotic locations! This time we are in West Lothian! A couple of cycle rides aside, I’ve not spent much of my life exploring West Lothian despite the fact that it’s right on my doorstep. I suppose I’ve assumed that it’s just farmland and dreary towns. But my view has changed. Over the festive season I had a fabulous walk in West Lothian up a fascinating little hill called Binny Craig.

Situated a mile north of Uphall and pointing its rocky prow above the surrounding farmland, Binny Craig is only 219 metres high but a striking landscape feature. It’s a “crag and tail” landform which means it has a crag of hard rock facing west and a sloping tail of sedimentary rock running down to farmland to the east. The sedimentary rock was formed when this area was under the sea hundreds of millions of years ago. Over time, the land rose and during the last Ice Age glaciers moved in from the west, grinding away the softer sedimentary rocks to leave the harder exposed rock and creating Binny Craig as we see it today.

There was a hint of the last Ice Age that morning as my friend Graham and I cycled away from Uphall Station. The day was still and grey, gripped in cold and slick with ice in places. Our cycle route popped out on the far side of Uphall and there ahead of us was Binny Craig. It’s really quite a bizarre sight, rising suddenly from the farmland all around. 

Back roads took us to the bottom of the hill and a footpath crossed the fields before climbing sharply up through mossy winter woods. At the top of the trees we were at the bottom of the final steep section of the hill. And steep it was as we picked our way up Binny Craig’s tail to the top. The crags fell away to our west, dropping sheer to bare birch woods below. To the north, a narrow band of sunshine caught the Ochil Hills, their russet slopes the only colour on offer. And as I looked around, I started to see other little hills rise gently above low-lying mist and patches of old woodland. It was really quite nice.

So I’m sorry West Lothian that I’ve ignored you all my life but now I've found you, I'll definitely be back.

Fact File

Start/finish: Uphall Train Station

Public transport: Train from Edinburgh to Uphall

My route: Off the train turned left in the car park and picked up a cycle path at the far end signed for Uphall. On reaching the main street in Uphall turned right then left up Ecclesmachan Road. Took the next unclassified road to the left and just over 1.5km along it the footpath up Binny Craig is signed. We walked up and back down the same way but explored also a little the surrounding woods. On the way back, before Uphall we picked up a footpath signed for the village on our right and this popped out on the main street opposite the start of the cycle path back to the train station. There was also a footpath signed for Uphall just before the hill path for Binny Craig and that might provide a nicer link between the hill and the train station than the road.