Harlaw & Threipmuir Walk

I had a couple of hours to spare so I headed up to one of my favourite places, the Pentland Hills. These hills lie on the outskirts of Edinburgh and can be busy, particularly at weekends. Lots of these visitors stick to certain routes so you can usually free yourself from them quite quickly. Today I was only going for a short walk so I parked at the main car park at Harlaw reservoir. This is a starting point for many of the western walks into the hills. These hills have been a great introduction to hill walking for generations of Edinburgh and district residents. The views of Edinburgh, out to Fife & the Firth of Forth can be quite exceptional.
As well as walking there is fly fishing for trout at both reservoirs. There is a club attached to the waters but day permits can be had at a reasonable price from Balerno post office. I have not fished either of these yet but after my walk today I will do so next season. Harlaw is stocked with rainbow trout whereas Threipmuir I believe is brown trout only.
My walk started by going anti clockwise around the edge of Harlaw reservoir. There is a path but it is more fun going along the waters edge. I threw in a piece of bread and after a couple of minutes a rainbow trout came up to investigate. The waters are tree lined but there is still ample room for casting a line, yes, I will definitely give this a go next season.
The photo on the right is at the far end of Harlaw, taken from the Threipmuir banking.
You have an option at this point of continuing along the side of Threipmuir heading west but I decided to leave that for another day.

Coming from the west I normally expect to leave the wind behind me but not today, it was blowing an absolute hooley, not cold but strong stuff. I went along the bank of Threipmuir, and compared to the sheltered Harlaw this could be a totally different fishing experience. A much larger water than Harlaw and fully exposed to the elements. Walking along this side was a pleasant experience, wind now at my back and you are looking directly at the hills, particularly Black Hill which is on the right of this photo. I have now pretty much left the dog walkers behind and almost have the place to myself. The wind is blowing the water into the narrow funnel ahead of me. There were about a dozen or so mallard ducks sheltering on the far side, the only birds I spotted on the water today.

Surprisingly there was next to no birdlife around today which both surprised and disappointed. They were probably keeping their heads well and truly in the heather in this wind.
In this photo you can see a walkway which takes you to the foot of Black Hill. As you can see from the photo it is showing its true colours today. This is a grouse hill and further up the hill are the gun butts. During previous walks I have raised a few grouse when walking through the heather, but not today, I did not even hear one calling. In this photo you can see a small construction coming out of the water. Closer inspection makes it out to be a type of fish ladder. I'm not sure why unless it is for the brownies to go up into the sheltered water behind for breeding. If anybody knows please post a comment. At the water board hut you can go left or right, there are good walks in either direction. Because of my time restrictions I am going to the left to partially walk around the base of Black Hill.

Bell's Hill in front and Turnhouse Hill in the distance

The path gradually climbs but there is no great elevation in my walk today. Any reasonably fit person would thoroughly enjoy this. Turning back there is a fine view showing Threipmuir reservoir. At this point 2 buzzards glide off the hill and begin circling just down at the waters edge. Close up, with wings expanded you get a good understanding of how big these birds are. They are known as the tourists eagle as to many non birdwatchers they have mistakenly said that they have just seen a golden eagle when it was the common buzzard!! It is still a fine bird to spot in its own right. Still in splendid isolation I wander round the track. It has been recently used by mountain bikers as parts of it are now extremely muddy and difficult to walk. To some the mountain bikers erode the landscape, I have some sympathy with this but it is a free country and to each their own sport. It maybe that I'm slightly biased as I have biked for much of my life but in fairness I tried to stick to true rocky mountain tracks as opposed to the soft boggy ground that makes up much of these hills with the consequent churning up of the ground.
My original intention was now to come down and climb the flank of Bell's Hill, meet up with the Glencorse path and return to Harlaw from that direction.
However the bottom area was extremely boggy with no clear path through. It was not appropriate for the footwear that I was wearing so not wanting soaking muddy feet I opted to return back to the water board hut and make a slightly different way back from there.
At this point I spotted 3 walkers up on Turnhouse Hill. It seemed a bit late in the day to be doing the ridge walk to Scald Law. A fine walk in its own right. Probably they were going to come off the ridge and head down the Penicuik side.
The wind was now back in my face and had not eased any. The upside was the patterns the wind was making across the water, the reeds and the grasslands, quite mesmerising.

So back across the walk way, a right turn then up through a short wooded area brought me to the far end of Harlaw reservoir. I took the longer route back around the water, back to the dog walkers and returned to the car park.
Overall out for about 3 hours, a really good short walk and all the better for it.