East Cairn Hill and angry coos

I had a couple of days in Edinburgh but only 1 dry day forecast so decided on a pair of new hills for me, East & West Cairn, outliers of the Pentland hills. East cairn is the sub 2000 Marilyn but the West cairn is only a few metres lower so a good double.

The guide normally suggests coming in from West Linton side but to save a drive in rush hour Edinburgh traffic and I was only 15 minutes away from a drovers trail at the other side so opted for that. The trail is known as the Cauldstane Slap, a very dangerous place in the past as the bandits would attack and murder the cattle drovers.

Amazingly I found the hidden car park without difficulty. It was already hot and the insects were out in force.

East & West Cairn

There is a fairly obvious track to follow but I imagine that this will be very dirty and muddy conditions after a wet spell. There are some walkboards in places but even so I was using my poles as anchors and swinging over many mud patches.

Both hills were clearly in sight but I could see large amounts of cattle ahead, could I bypass them?

After about a mile and a half I had a decision to make, this was a large herd with small calves well spread over. The formal track would go right through them and with calves I was very unsure, no way past without very long detours across wild moorland.

Suddenly I heard cattle on the move close by with much angry bellowing. I was below a small hill so backtracked. Then at the bridge I spotted a group of a dozen or so agitated cows running past the spot I was recently standing at still bellowing loudly and literally disappeared into long grass. No way for me walk ended.

I met a shepherd on my way back and asked him about the cattle. He said the big fields calves were three weeks old and should have bonded with their mothers but still a slight risk. The rampaging lot were a different story. The farmer was moving stock but had separated mothers and calves. This lot were the agitated mothers looking for their calves who had not yet been moved to this field. His advice was well advised to stay out as this lot were very unpredictable.

A few bites to the legs from the insect hordes, a apt ending. I will be back later in the year but probably from the other side.

So back to the car, I was close to the Balerno walks so opted for Black Hill, would that be straightforward?