Crosswood - Sergeant Law - Lockhart Memorial - Crosswood

Tom and Joyce Kay

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Crosswood - Sergeant Law - Darlees Rig - Lockhart Memorial - West Water - Black Law - Covenanter's Grave - Crosswood

The rewards from this walk are high, with isolation, freedom and natural features complementing the numerous wildlife. This is wild country and yet so close to Edinburgh.

Although the walk mainly follows a right of way it is virtually pathless and despite navigation being straightforward, progress is not. There are no lung-bursting climbs, the land itself being sufficient to exercise the muscles. Dependent on the weather and terrain conditions, the walk can be demanding. After a prolonged dry spell the biggest obstacles are boot-clinging heather and large clumps of grass. However, after moderate rain or snow the route becomes very hard work.

As the way-posts have been moved over the years it is not necessary to attempt to maintain the precise mapped route, via the way-posts or the waymarks, as the best track varies with heather burning and weather. However, an average course of 155° compass for the outgoing moorland sections of the route should be maintained.

'He rests in the hills he loved'.

The walled circular area surrounding the memorial to Simon Foster Macdonald Lockhart (original spelling Locard in 1272) does not appear on the maps, so has few visitors. The 'Laird of Lee and Carnwath' was married to Catriona Seton Gordon, the daughter of Seton Gordon, a Scots naturalist, photographer and author who wrote much about Scotland and whose books are now rare and expensive. The Locards held Lee Castle near Lanark for 700 years until it was sold to an American in 2003. Regrettably, visits to the castle, even by Lockharts chasing their ancestry, reportedly are not encouraged.

This small deviation to the memorial makes this walk feel just for the few.
The location of the Covenanter's Grave is an ideal rest spot, with panoramas from south to west and on a clear day, a view all the way to Ayrshire.

Scotland - Central Scotland - West Lothian - Pentland Hills

Features

Ancient Monument, Birds, Butterflies, Great Views, Hills or Fells, Wildlife
7/12/2018 - Tom and Joyce Kay

The two post boxes are now accompanied by an ROW pointer to 'West Linton and Dolphinton'. Some ROW markers have been replaced and a number now sport yellow caps making them easier to identify. Also a few styles have been replaced by gates. An extension to the farm track near Mid Crosswood may miss the early potentially wet areas.

8/7/2014 - Tom and Joyce Kay

All RoW waymarks and bridges in place in July 2014. Between marks 5 and 6, near a post with a yellow cap, there is an old short post with a white engraved arrow pointing left into a field. It is difficult to spot but if you do see it then Ignore it. Continue between two fences without entering either field,(unless,of course, you like climbing barbed wire fences)to the tall waypost on the skyline.