Situated in the famous Lammermuir Hills south of Edinburgh, this relatively straightforward circuit returns by an ancient route once used to transport Herring caught at Dunbar. Starting of at the car park by Pressmennan Wood near Stenton you follow the road up into the hills and into what can only be described as a surprisingly wild and vast area of highland !
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| Road to Pressmennan Woods |
Stenton in East Lothian is around a 40 minute drive from the centre of Edinburgh and is pretty remote with only a few households and farms making up the picturesque village. When you head into Stenton take the right hand turn by the school then turn left at the sign for the car park for Pressmennan wood. Park up then head back to the road and turn left, follow this for around a kilometre until you come to a junction and turn down to the right. There's nothing spectacular about this section, the highlight for me was walking past a disemboweled poor wee Rabbit. The surroundings are similar to the Yorkshire Moors so thoughts of what type of beast could have done this ran through my mind, with haunting echoey voices in my head murmured "Beware the moon . . " and "stick to the roads" sending chills up my spine . . . .
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| Stick to the roads . . . |
Follow the road passing the ford signs and the most rickety little bridge imaginable (it's only there to help cross the ford on wetter occasions) and you'll soon come to some cottages with a bend in the road to the left. This leads you up to Stoneypath Farm, follow the road right (signposted for Johnscleugh).
Keep on the track until you come to the farm, go through the gates to the right and follow the track along the path of Whiteadder Water. There is an ancient hill fort called White Castle just off to the right and 15 minutes detour which is well worth a visit if you feel so inclined.
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| Looking back to Johnscleugh Farm |
You're now up into the Lammermuir's proper, immediately I was struck by how vast, wild & beautiful they were, I was a Lammermuir Virgin and quite taken by it all. I found the track difficult to follow as there was still heavy snow on the ground covering what path was there. This clearly wasn't a typical well trodden Munro path as mine were the only footprints visible. I walked on for a mile or so more and decided to head back, light was fading, the wind was howling and I'd neglected to bring an OS map with me. I did have my GPS but wasn't sure of the battery charge left so decided it was high time to high tail it back home.
Here's the details of the walk :
Elevation
Route
Elevation
Route
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