Swanston Village and the Pentland Hills

After reaching Swanston Pig Farm we wandered up through the revelation that was Swanston Village (a hamlet preserved in time with cottages with thatched roofs) and followed a small burn set amidst a sylvan green pasture.

From there we climbed up to the army’s firing range. If there was a red flag flying we needed to make the difficult decision whether to turn back or somehow reconnoitre and by-pass the T Woods. It was not really a T but actually a cross which was disguised from the northerly Edinburgh direction. One of the children said the T stood for the Trotter family who had planted it. 

Photograph Dave Hennicker

From there we began the steep climb and scramble up the scree slope of the northerly side toward the summit of Caerketton. I found this quite scary; but I had to keep up with the party or risk becoming distanced and isolated so I pushed on. 

But the climb was worth it because once at the top we could survey and take in the whole panorama of Edinburgh and where The Stair and Oxgangs Avenue fitted in. It was an early opportunity to take our bearings and to look at the bigger picture and realise there was a world beyond Oxgangs.

The next generation of Hoffmann brothers (d’Artagnan and Atticus) on the Pentlands above Edinburgh, 2005.

On one of those early adventures we had forged beyond the hill tops deep into the glens perhaps between Fala Knowe and Woodhouselee Hill and then in the direction of Glencorse Reservoir; but for some reason my wee brother Iain (two and a half years younger than me) and I had to turn back to go home early. Unlike the older boys I didn’t know the way and of course back in the day we didn't have any maps or mobile phones. 

We were both in tears. However eventually we found our way back to the summits of Capelaw, Allermuir and Caerketton. And what a happy relief it was to be able to survey the whole panorama of Edinburgh and to say to Iain we’re fine and I think I know the way home. 

From the heights of Pentland it was downhill through Robert Louis Stevenson’s Swanston Village and home to Oxgangs and the bosom of The Stair and back for tea, either Heinz baked beans or spaghetti, toast and tea and as far as our parents knew we could just as easily been have down at Colinton Mains Park all afternoon!