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The viewpoint indicator on Allermuir summit

3 Descend Allermuir Hill by the same route over Byerside Hill and return to the bealach below Caerketton. Instead of climbing back over Caerketton (although this is an option), take a grassy path that goes north, leading downhill. This path divides lower down, and you should follow it as it cuts to the right across the lower slopes of Caerketton, overlooking the T Wood towards Hillend, and passing Muilieputchie (NT236666 – not shown on the OS 1:50,000 map).

The unusual name Muilieputchie is found on the OS 6in to 1 mile map of 1852, and according to S Harris’s The Place Names of Edinburgh, Their Origins and History (see bibliography), may be British moel or Gaelic maoile, meaning ‘hill brow’, and Gaelic poiteag, a ‘pit’ or ‘well’, or British puth. However this is disputed, and the name may have a Scots root, moolie meaning ‘mouldy’, and pooch meaning ‘pocket’, hence ‘a damp hollow’.

Viewed from Edinburgh the T Wood resembles a letter T, but in fact it is in the shape of a Maltese cross. It was planted in 1766 by Henry Trotter, to commemorate a member of the Trotter family of Mortonhall who had fallen in battle. The wood is mainly of beech trees, which cast a lot of shade, so there is very little understorey of other plants.