Ettrick Horseshoe
We had been planning a walk this weekend for a while so we were going to head out no matter what the weather was like.
I checked the forecast on the usual sites, The Met Office being my favourite as you can search for individual hill names. The other site I use is Mountain Weather Information Service (MWIS) which has forecasts for larger areas but is tailored for hill walking so you get descriptions that are relevent & make sense.
The forecast wasn’t great. Anywhere. Up North was quickly ruled out (wet and very windy with gusts to 65mph) and also heading down to the Lake District (dryish but windy). So we decided on something more local and chose the Ettrick Horseshoe.
I’ve walked most of the hills in this area, see: our Capel Fell and Croft Head blog post where we picked a route from the brilliant Cicerone book, “Walking in the Scottish Borders”. But Ettrick Pen & Wind Fell were two hills that I hadn’t been up so the Ettrick Horseshoe made perfect sense.
I took a look at the route on Walk Highlands but didn’t like the anticlockwise direction as there was a bit of a walk out past the Pawhope Bothy. Our plan to walk the Ettrick Horseshoe clockwise means you get the fireroad out of the way early on and at the end it pops you out right next to the car after a much shorter walk through a Sitka plantation.
The route starts at the Western end of the Ettrick Valley and feels very remote. Follow the B709 until you get to Ettrick and then rather than heading South towards the sprawling Craik Forrest, continue heading West on a single track road, past the Monument on Birthplace of James Hogg (1770 – 1835) a Scottish poet & novelist and then continue West. By the time you get to the start point, it really does feel very remote.
The Ettrick Horseshoe route starts at the end of the public road. There is space for about 8 cars on the right if nobody parks like a dick and we have never seen more than one other car there. Especially on days like this (cold, wet and windy) as most sensible people were tucked up in the houses.
It was a cold start after being in Sean’s van as the heater fan is either off or on speed 4. The walk to the Over Pawhope Bothy, managed by the Mountain Bothy Association, didn’t take long. We popped our heads round the door to have a look. There were two mountain bikers there with two barky but friendly dogs and a strong smell of weed. We didn’t stay long.
After the bothy we took the left hand fork, heading right continues you on the Southern Upland Way. It wasn’t long before we off the track and heading up the hill.
This wasn’t meant to be a ful on navigation practice day as I’ve had a hard couple of months with work so I just wanted a walk. But Sean and I love navigation and it really wasn’t long before we were stopping to discuss features, relocate and generally chat all things maps.
The first hill in the Ettrick Horseshoe is Ettrick Pen, a Graham at 692m. It boasts the remains of a prehistoric cairn which is pretty interesting even though I’m not a fan of cairns. I prefer to leave the hills untouched and don’t understand why us humans feel the need to leave a mark. From Ettrick Pen it was on to Wind Fell (Donald 665m). It was windy and cloudy. Today was not going to be a day for stunning views of the Scottish Borders.
We followed the fence line down towards the Southern Upland Way. This was my “escape route” if the weather had become too hideous and the fun stopped. But it wasn’t that bad. Ok we couldn’t see anything, it was cold and damp but we had the hills to ourselves.
The climb up Capel Fell (Graham 678m), while not steep is pretty consistent and involved a fair few stops to “look at fauna and flora” while we got our breath back. This was pretty blowy, zero view and damp so we didn’t stay long.
From here the route takes us North towards Bodesbeck Law a Donald at 665m. This is the last main hill on the Ettrick Horseshoe. We stopped for a quick bite to eat at the Ford before the climb. This is a drove road from the Ettrick vallley over to the Moffat valley and ends up at Bodesbeck Ford just after the intriguingly named Goat Prison.
A bit of internet digging when I got home led me to the Scotlands Places digitised Ordnance Survey Name Books and an entry on OS1/10/39/13 which describes Goat Prison as:
A deep black- looking hole on the Bodsbeck Burn having a waterfall in the centre, and surrounded by rocks and steep banks.
Goat Prison situation In the vicinity of Brownie’s Cave.
I think I’ve just found my next time sink along with the Canmore website! I love reading about the history of the names I come across in the hills but information is often limited. This resourse looks as though it could be useful.
While eating our lunch we noticed that the wall we were sheltering behind was covered in an amazing variety of lichen. One of which is my favourite, British soldiers lichen or it’s scientific name, Cladonia cristatella. I just love the bright red tips of these. But this was just one of what must have been 20 different lichen all jammed together living on this tiny section of wall in the hills. Stunning.
After some photos, one of which you can see above, we climbed up to the last summit. This was hard going, as by now were tired and again, it was a consistent slog. It was even colder, wetter and cloudier here so we didn’t hang about and walked straight off. If I hadn’t already been here on a previous trip we would have been taking a bearing to ensure we were heading in the right direction. The conditions were pretty hard going by now. Visibility was reducing and it wasn’t the place to hang about.
The map showed that the path took us past some cairns but we couldn’t see much at all and we weren’t going to hang around looking for them so it was a quick yomp to Bught Hill before dropping off the hill and into the shelter of the Sitka plantation. It was so good to be out of that wind.
The last section was about 1km of fire road back to the car.
All in all a great day out. The weather wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be. Yes visibility was poor, it was cold, damp and windy but we loved it. It wasn’t so hideous that we couldn’t stop plenty of times for some navigation practice.
Route Info
Hills Climbed
Ettrick Pen 692m (Graham)
Wind Fell 665m (Donald)
Capel fell 678m (Graham)
Bodesbeck law 665m (Donald)
Stats
Distance: 17.29 km
Time: 7 h 30 min
Note:
The time taken is our time. We’re not fell runners wearing a tiny pair of shorts & carrying no kit, nor did we stop for hours and have a picnic.
Your time may be different. If you do follow this route and end up: hours late, in the pitch black, weeping. Tough.
A cracking day out deserves a cracking blog. As much as it pains me to say it you set up a really good day. Great fun practicing various nav strategies, general chat and just being out on a hill. Looking forward to the next one matey
Thanks for the kind words Sean. When planning a walk with you I know I have to bring my A-game and I was pleased with this one. A nice loop, a variety of summits, plenty of features and not a single person seen. Perfect!