Edge Head

Looking south-east with Harperleas and Ballo reservoirs in the background,

Bishop Hill is an unexpectedly prominent hill, having a drop of 192 metres, meaning that this is how far you have to travel down in order to get on your way to going up a higher summit. The heart-shaped memorial stone in amongst the regular ones is one of at least two; another one stood out due to being in memory of someone who died in their late 30s, and this one too is probably again for someone who died young, considering that 'son' appears in the inscription. There is a lot of talk on hillwalking sites etc about whether these memorials - now very commonplace on popular walking routes - are a good or bad thing. Having read a few threads I have come to the conclusion that they are perfectly fine, so am possibly in the minority on this subject. Considering that a lot of people go up hills not just for the nature, but for traces of human history too, it could be viewed as a little hypocritical by some that new things happening are not welcome. After all, even the Iron Age burial mounds were new once. And before the days of GPS, people used to get lost for hours trying to locate the Covenanter's Grave in the Pentland Hills, just South of Edinburgh. It is simply a new tradition, which may fade in time - making it a possibility that in 200 years hillwalkers may actively head into the hills looking these things. There are even people who object to ashes being scattered on the hills, due to them giving rise to briefly nutrient-rich soil in otherwise nutrient-poor areas. It should be pointed out to these people that in most cases the 'natural' environment they want to keep is actually largely man-made. Sheep and cattle now graze a lot of this land due to us. In millennia gone by not only would a lot of these popular farmed hills have looked different - animals, and, on the odd occasion no doubt, humans would have died on them too, putting far more nutrients back into the soil than now. The ashes of a person only weigh about 3% of the body that they came from.

Glen Vale, the Convenanters’ glen — a “ravine of rugged grandeur” — on account of the Presbyterian conventicles held during the ‘Killing Time’ in the late 17th Century when such Convenanters as John Welsh, John Blackadder, Alexander Peden and Donald Cargill preached in its seclusion. It is thought these Convenanters preached from an outcrop of calciferous sandstone on the north side of the glen called John Knox’s Pulpit. John Knox was the 16th-century founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, although there is no evidence he even visited the glen yet alone preached from it. The rock crag is badly eroded and suffered from a major rockfall in 2004, after which the local council dislodged further hazardous outcrops. The rock was laid down as desert sand dunes 410-353 million years ago, when Scotland lay close to the Equator. It is characterised by thin layers called ‘pin stripes’ when sand was deposited by wind in an arid environment. It has given its name to a unique rock type: the Knox Pulpit Sandstone Formation. For sources see my blog Link

The location of many prehistoric finds, over 100, mainly flint microliths and leaf-shaped and chisel arrowheads, including a Bronze Age battle-axe made of vesicular volcanic lava, two bladelets of pitchstone, and a single sherd of coarse pottery, probably prehistoric. Sources: ‘Devil’s Burdens, West Lomond | Canmore’. 2022. Canmore.org.uk <Link > [accessed 29 October 2022] ‘Devil’s Burdens | Canmore’. 2022. Canmore.org.uk <Link > [accessed 29 October 2022]

A small hillock with an intriguing name. "The name is reminiscent of the Scottish phrase commonly found in boundary charters and perambulations to indicate a water-shed, Englished as ‘where wind and weather shears’." ‘Fife Place-Name Data :: Wind and Weather’. 2022. Glasgow.ac.uk <Link > [accessed 1 November 2022] ‌

The landscape looks rather bleak but it was actually a lovely spring day.

West Lomond is the highest point in Fife, at 522 m. Geologically, it is part of the East Fife basanitic and foiditic plugs and vents, being igneous bedrock formed between 330.9 and 272.3 million years ago during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, or in simpler terms, an extinct volcano. According to the trigpointing.uk website, the trig point has reference number PP334 and was once a 'primary' reference point.

The summit cone of West Lomond is a steep pull-up from any direction. It is just possible to make out the figure of a walker toiling up one of the less popular approach routes. The deep cleft of Glen Vale can be seen in the middle distance with Loch Leven beyond.

Wear by many feet on this popular summit has resulted in the foundations of this trig pillar which was erected in the 1940s now being exposed by a good 50 cm.

With extensive, if slightly hazy, views to the north.

Wear by many feet on this popular summit has resulted in the foundations of this trig pillar which was erected in the 1940s now being exposed by a good 50 cm. East Lomond NO2406 can be seen in the distance.

Wear by many feet on this popular summit has resulted in the foundations of this trig pillar which was erected in the 1940s now being exposed by a good 50 cm.

The summit cone of West Lomond is a steep pull-up from any direction. This shows a couple of walkers toiling up one of the less popular approach routes. Beyond and below are Harperleas Reservoir NT2105, Ballo Reservoir NT2204 (further away) and Holl Reservoir NT2203 (to the right).

East Lomond NT2406 in the distance.

The broad firm gravel path nearly all the way makes West Lomond a very popular location for a walk.