Walking in the Southern Uplands. Ronald Turnbull

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ 4 Minnigaff Hills

       Walk 5 Merrick and Murder Hole

       Walk 6 The Dungeon Hills

       Walk 7 Rhinns of the Kells

       Walk 8 Cairnsmore of Carsphairn

       Walk 9 Screel Hill

       2 Nithsdale and Lanarkshire

       Walk 10 Afton Water

       Walk 11 Criffel

       Walk 12 Queensberry

       Walk 13 Well Hill, Durisdeer

       Walk 14 Lowther Hill by Well and Enterkin passes

       Walk 15 Tinto

       Walk 16 Culter Fells

       Walk 17 Broughton Heights

       3 Moffatdale

       Walk 18 Devil’s Beef Tub

       Walk 19 Ettrick Head

       Walk 20 Hart Fell

       Walk 21 White Coomb

       Walk 22 White Coomb and Hart Fell

       Walk 23 Loch of the Lowes and Ward Law

       Walk 24 The Wiss and St Mary’s Loch

       4 Manor Hills to the Tweed

       Walk 25 Broad Law

       Walk 26 Manor Head

       Walk 27 Cademuir Hill and the Tweed

       Walk 28 Glen Sax Circuit

       Walk 29 Lee Pen and Windlestraw Law

       Walk 30 Three Brethren and Minch Moor

       Walk 31 Eildon Hills and the Tweed

       Walk 32 Rubers Law

       5 Lothian

       Walk 33 Pentlands

       Walk 34 Arthur’s Seat

       Walk 35 Blackhope Scar

       Walk 36 Lammer Law

       Walk 37 Abbey St Bathans and Cockburn Law

       Walk 38 North Berwick Law

       6 The Border Ridge to Cheviot

       Walk 39 Langholm Heights

       Walk 40 Cauldcleuch Head

       Walk 41 Peel Fell and Kielder Stone

       Walk 42 Hownam Law

       Walk 43 Windy Gyle

       Walk 44 The Cheviot and Hen Hole

       Appendix A Walk summary table

       Appendix B Information and facilities by area

       Appendix C Scots glossary

      South ridge of Carlin’s Cairn looking towards Corserine (Walk 7)

      Queensberry from Capel Water (Walk 12) – its grassy slopes are typical of the central Southern Uplands

      INTRODUCTION

      Dun Rig and Hundleshope Heights from Kailzie Hill (Walk 28)

      From the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea, one big line of hills stretches all the way along the southern edge of Scotland. The Southern Uplands – it’s the range that’s about as big as the Pennines but you’ve probably never been to. Here are over 80 hills of 2000ft (600m) or more – and the smaller ones are also important. And it’s a country with its own character – green and gentle, but with hidden surprises.

      The Lake District, Snowdonia and the Scottish Highlands – UK walkers, quite rightly, clamber their rocky ridges and queue at their summit cairns. For this writer at least, and without wanting to be impolite to the Pennines, the Southern Uplands are the UK’s fourth great range. In terms of land area, it’s Lakeland three times over, or six Snowdonias.

      Any walking lifetime should include some time – 44 days, say – in these distinctive hills. ‘Smooth classics’ we can call them, where the wind sings in the grasses, and clouds drift across an empty glen with its twisting river. Here are snowfields where the only footprints belong to a fox who’s just as chilly and bewildered as you are. From the huge views of the Cheviots to the mysteries of iced-over Loch Enoch, this lost bit of Scotland is your local Siberia.

Boundaries of the Borders

      The Pennine Way approaches Auchope Hut on the Border Ridge to The Cheviot (Walk 44)

      Logically – and indeed geologically – the Southern Uplands have their northern edge at the faultline scarp of the Southern Upland Fault, a clearly defined hill edge from Dunbar to Ballantrae. And their southern boundary is the wide vale of the Tweed. The Southern Upland Way, Scotland’s longest long-distance path, follows this band of high ground. Starting at the Solway, the component ranges are the granite slabs of Galloway (Section 1), Dumfriesshire’s Lowthers and Carsphairn group (Section 2), the Moffat and Manor Hills (Sections 3 and 4 respectively), the Moorfoots south of Edinburgh (Sections 4 and 5), and across to the Lammermuirs above North Sea (Section 5). This main range makes up the greater part of this book.

      Across СКАЧАТЬ