Baddingsgill

Another foray into the Pentlands, up behind West Linton. Wind was WSW and rain was moving in and out. I planned to go up over Mount Maw but the low cloud and poor visibility put me off. It was also getting on in the day.

So I trudged around the reservoir, anticlockwise. It was pretty dispiriting until I got to the end of the water. The weather began to change.  The book had promised s suspension bridge over an inlet but that has long since succumbed.

I had the vast expanse to myself, with hard going over hummocky wire moss and treacherous looking sinks of sphagnum. The old cross-Borders drove road runs through here cresting out at Cauldstane Slap to the north. I intersected it after an arduous slog.

The rain lifted and fitful low sun worked its way across the heathery moors in fits and dashes. Its almost as if someone has rather hesitantly painted on, scumbled, the patterns of heather bloom. Very beautiful in its spareness and ever-shifting light. So different from the solidity of Tuscany.

As I got back to the car at 6.30pm the rain swept in again providing some fine possibilities looking to the immediate hills and to the south (see extras).

I'll be returning here to do the circuit of hills and to walk up to Cauldstane Slap in the hope of hearing droving songs and lowing of cattle being moved slowly south.