Day 49 Saturday - Peebles to Cauldstane Slap

Walking 7.30am to 4.20pm
Distance walked 16 miles
Total distance walked 701 miles
Distance left 351 miles

The Rosetta site was actually on my route out of Peebles. I just turned left out of the entrance and walked up the side of Hamilton Hill and round to Upper Kidston farm - it was signposted "Old drove road to West Linton". In fact, many of the paths were signposted by the Scottish Rights of Way Society of Edinburgh. However, not all of them appeared on the Landranger map.


Looking back towards Peebles

My route today was easy to follow. After Upper Kidston, I went north up a farm road, turning right and then left to Stewarton. Shortly after this, the drove road entered some real Hansel and Gretel woodland, a little spooky at first until I got used to it; it was really quite beautiful.



The way then continued across open country between hills Drum Maw and Hag Law and led down to the A701 at Romannobridge. I walked along this for half a mile before turning left on the B7059 and heading for West Linton. Of course, the tearoom attracted me like a magnet.

West Linton was nice - the usual Co-op, deli, bistro and an award-winning pub, the Gordon Arms (which I didn't go in). Whilst having lunch on a seat opposite the bus stop, I was joined by a walker waiting for a bus. He was a volunteer surveyor for the Scottish Rights of Way Society. He told me that all the paths, drove roads, etc. in the Scottish Hill Tracks book are to be walked and checked in the coming year in preparation for a new edition. I would have enjoyed talking to him for longer but his bus appeared across the road and he was gone.

From the A702, I took the road north-west. It was signposted "Cauldstane Slap" so no going wrong there. It passed a couple of farms before coming to an end and continuing as a track called Thieves Road. Here, I was joined by Pete from Edinburgh (only twenty miles away), out for a walk up to West Cairn Hill, just to the east of Cauldstane Slap. A couple of minutes after we separated, the rain that had been threatening for the last few hours came although it only lasted a short while.

I had hoped to find water at Ravendean Burn but it didn't look too good; I was expecting more of a stream than it was. Once I was pitched, I set off in search of water in the upper reaches of Baad Park Burn, a quarter of a mile away. I followed it down until I could hear the sound of running water. The burn wasn't much more than a trickle and was rather yellow but, once treated, sufficed.