Читать книгу Walking in the Pentland Hills. 30 walks in Edinburgh's local hills онлайн

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Make your way uphill on a broad path over grassy slopes, then through sparsely wooded areas with bracken, gorse and trees, for about 600m. Follow the Capital View waymarkers and finger posts from this point.

Keep walking uphill on a path through Hillend Country Park to reach an open grassy knoll at NT245672, near the ski runs. From here you can admire the views over the city and beyond.

Juniper berries

On the top of the knoll are the faint remains of a fort, possibly Iron Age. All that is visible of its rampart is a low mound and a stretch of ditch and bank, but with imagination the structures that would have been here 2000 years ago can be visualised.

Descend the knoll on a path to the west, and at another signpost indicating Caerketton, go through the metal gate and follow the path as it zigzags up the bulk of Caerketton Hill. Climb up onto the ridge, ascending 100m in 500m.

The shrubs in the wooden enclosures to your right on the way up Caerketton Hill are junipers, one of three conifers native to Scotland. Juniper is scarce in the Pentlands and bushes are scattered (they may once have been plentiful, but there is some dispute over this – see Malcolm Cant's Villages of Edinburgh: An Illustrated Guide Vol. II). To help re-establish juniper in the hills, the Pentland Hills Regional Park with Defence Estates, Forest Research and TCV (Scotland) are undertaking a programme of growing-on cuttings and berries to plant in other suitable places. Berries, which do not form on the juniper bushes until the bushes are eight years old, are used to flavour gin, as well as making a peppery seasoning for venison or duck.