Читать книгу Walking in the Southern Uplands. 44 best hill days in southern Scotland онлайн

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However, the hill list specific to Southern Scotland is the one compiled by Percy Donald in 1935. The 140 Donalds are all over 2000ft (610m) high, but the drop around each can be as little as 50ft (15m) if the hill has ‘topographic merit’. Donald distinguished between ‘hills’ (current surveys give 89 of these) and less significant ‘tops’ (currently 51) – but anyone going after this lot generally ticks them all.

The final listing to consider is the so-called Marilyns. These are hills, however low or high, that have a clear drop of 150m around them. Thus all Corbetts are by definition Marilyns. But so are lowly Grey Hill at Girvan (Walk 1) and Arthur’s Seat (Walk 34). The Southern Uplands’ incised valleys create a grand number of Marilyns – at the foot of Ettrick glen one could get five of them in a day.

Magnificent Marilyns, which might otherwise be ignored because of being below the arbitrary 2000ft or 600m mark, include Ailsa Craig (Walk 2), Criffel above the Solway (Walk 11), Well Hill at Durisdeer (Walk 13) and the Broughton Heights (three of them on Walk 17). Ward Law (Walk 23) and the Wiss (Walk 24) both overlook St Mary’s Loch in the Yarrow Valley. Over in the east, the Marilyn listing takes in the Tweed with Rubers Law (Walk 32) and Eildon (Walk 31), celebrates the Pentlands (two of them on Walk 33), and lingers over little North Berwick Law (Walk 38). These range in height from 606m down to a mere 187m.