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

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3 Just beyond the wet area the path divides, so stay to the right, again climbing uphill to the northwest of Byerside Hill.

4 The path continues on up to Allermuir Hill, where there is an Ordnance Survey triangulation pillar and a viewpoint. After enjoying the views (on a clear day) descend quite steeply to your right on a path to reach an obvious stony track at NT223660. (There is the option of lengthening this walk considerably by linking with Walk 30, to ascend Capelaw Hill, and return to Swanston via Bonaly, Torduff Reservoir and Dreghorn.)

5 Take the stony track north down Howden Glen until you reach a stone building, Green Craig Cistern. The infant Howden Burn – ‘the burn of the howe den’ (from holh meaning hollow and den meaning valley) – rises in Howden Glen.

Green Craig Cistern was constructed in 1790 and engraved on the door lintel is ‘Edinburgh Thomas Elder Praefect MDCCIXC’. Thomas Elder of Forneth was lord provost of Edinburgh from 1788 to 1790.

To the east of Green Craig Cistern, on the northern slopes of Allermuir Hill, is a rocky outcrop at 260m. It was here, in 1886, in a cleft in the rocks known as the Reindeer Cave, that a number of animal bones were found by RA Macfie, owner of Dreghorn Castle and Redford House. Most of the bones were reindeer, but there were also wolf, fox and horse. Speculation as to the identity of the carnivore that left them here has ranged from a hyena to a wolf.