Climbing four Donalds: map & data
Total climbing: 1125 m
Total time: 08:13:29
15.1 mile walk in 8h15 from 09.45 to 18.00 average speed 1.8 mph
Donald – Birkscairn Hill
Graham / Donald – Dun Rig
Donald – Glenrath Heights
Donald – Stob Law
Simon had come up with quite a plan for this excursion: we were going to climb four Donalds and walk about 15 miles (25 km). That’s 5 miles more than the previous week.
Off to the Scottish Borders
After months of lockdown, the plan sounded gruelling. I loved it.
9.49 – Leaving Peebles
We arrived in Peebles at about 9am and had breakfast in the van.
The weather forecast was for broken cloud in the morning and plenty of sun in the afternoon. As we were leaving the van the cloud started to disappear. From then on, it was bright and sunny all day.
10.31 – After reaching Craig Head
We were going at a good pace. I was wearing my mountain boots; the chunky, stiff ones. I didn’t really need them for this walk, but I wanted to get used to them again after months away from the hills.
The bouncy grassy paths were a godsend.
11.05 – Simon at the summit of Kailzie Hill
Birkscairn Hill was the first of the four Donalds in Simon’s plan. Donalds, by the way, are Scottish mountains of between 2000 and 2999 feet (610 and 914 m).
As we were approaching Birkscairn Hill, we saw a smiley mountain biker flying down the path. We’d seen him earlier in the day, pushing his bike up for a mile. He wasn’t smiling then.
11.43 – Maria at the summit of Birkscairn Hill *
A bit about Peebles
Peebles is a royal burgh in the Scottish Borders region with a population of about 9,000.
It’s not the easiest place to get to without a car, so I hadn’t been back for many years. It was as pretty as I remembered it.
12.08 – Looking back at Birkscairn Hill
Some of our excursions are full of fords, bridges or mountain hares. This one was full of fences.
12.14 – Simon jumping the first of several fences
Wire fences. Wooden fences. Rickety fences. Fallen fences. We got them all.
12.32 – More fences!
According to the walking reports we’d read, this walk is often a trudge across the wet bog. Miles and miles of it.
We know how hard that is, plodding along at a snail’s pace, with no end in sight. We now avoid wet bog like the plague when it’s rained for a few days.
But it hadn’t rained for weeks, that’s why we were here.
12.38 – A dry peat bog
After Dun rig
By now we’d climbed Dun Rig, the second of our four Donalds.
At 744m, Dun Rig isn’t only a Donald, it’s also a Graham; Grahams being hills of between 2,000 and 2,500 feet (609.6 to 762.0 m).
13.05 – Maria leaving Dun Rig *
Soon we reached Glenrath Heights (732m), our third Donald.
When we were planning this walk, we weren’t sure how many people we were going to meet on the hills. We saw half a dozen walkers all in all.
I so love the solitary hills of Scotland.
13.20 – Simon at the summit of Glenrath Heights (Middle Hill on the OS map)
We stopped for lunch at this awesome spot overlooking a place marked as Glensax on the map.
14.00 – View from our lunch spot
After lunch we headed for our 4th Donald, Stob Law, the steepest of the four.
14.10 – Stob Law, our fourth & last Donald
There were dozens and dozens of hills all around us. Stob Law had a fence running all the way up to the top.
Here is where we jumped it.
About our hats
Last week we’d left the summer hats in the van, so I had to wear my winter hat all day – and roast inside it. This time I made sure we had our summer hats with us. It was around here that we put them on.
14.32 – More fence climbing
The summit of Stob Law has this minimalistic cairn. To make it more exiting, I took this picture of us over it.
I’ve got quite a collection of surreal shadows in this blog. This is one of my favourite. Simon could be a cross between a bear and a hound, and I look like a sinister goblin. Super.
14.34 – Two weirdos on Stob Law
Throughout the day, we saw dozens of patches of burnt heather.
Heather burning
Heather is burnt to remove the older growth. The new shoots that grow as a consequence of the burning are more palatable and nutritious to the grouse, deer, mountain hares and sheep that have it as their key food.
14.40 – Burnt heather
In this picture you can see a pocket of snow in the distance. In this glorious sun we didn’t imagine we would be caught in a snowstorm two weeks later.
15.01 – A defeated fence
In spite of all the heather on this and the other hills, we never saw or heard any grouse all day.
I haven’t figured out why. We usually see so many of them.
15.32 – Simon on Broom Hill
The long walk back offered us some magnificent views.
We still had several miles ahead of us and plenty of energy after the previous night’s pasta, but I was starting to feel my hard boots.
We stopped for a break, and laid for a wee while on the not very soft heather. It was wonderfully warm.
15.59 – The long walk back to Peebles
About the Scottish grouse
The grouse-shooting season starts on 12 August, a day famously called the “Glorious Twelfth”.
16.36 – A grouse butt
In April and May, grouse lay their eggs. They nest in the heather, often quite close to the paths. On many occasions we’ve seen a pair flying away as we walked past their nest, and we’ve even seen the eggs.
But not this time.
16.46 – View of Peebles
Towards the end of the path we came across this intriguing animal trap. There was no indication of what it is, so I still have to find out.
17.00 – An intriguing trap
To get down to the Newby Farm we had to climb down what ended up being the steepest slope of the day. Hard work when you’ve been walking for seven hours in those heavy boots.
17.18 – Lambs on the Newby Farm
The last couple of miles were along the Newby Farm. We’d seen some teeny-weeny lambs in the morning, on our way down to Peebles from Edinburgh.
Lambs are often shy and run away when they see you, but these were curious and came to say hello.
It was a glorious evening. A great end to another memorable adventure.
I took all the photos with the Panasonic.
* Simon took this photo.