Was up the Pentlands today with my 4 legged riding buddy , and was wondering Is there anything worth exploring south of Nine mile burn?. the above photo is the furthest south Ive been . Cracking ride up there today and not too muddy despite this weeks Biblical rain.

is your dog really fat or is the camera telling fibs?

Is that signpost the one at the wee bealach by west kip? Not sure, anyhow you probably know the borestane route up from ninemileburn or carlops – probably my favourite route in the Pentlands although I don’t do it often.
Beyond that you’ve got the Slap up from West Linton and over to the A road on the other side. Done this once and it’s a nice out-there ride but wouldn’t be in a hurry to repeat.
Don’t know anything else southerly – it looks a bit non-descript on the map round Dolphinton, coventers grave etc. but could be wrong. Maybe there’s a gem of a ride there. You’re also starting to need a car journey from Edinburgh, which is a bit senseless if you’re just talking about riding miles of moorland.

Asked a similar question a while back because I was staying in a cottage near Coulter, south of Biggar. Ended up doing a (nice) ride round there rather than explore the south Pentlands.

Hes not fat he’s big boned. The big lad coped admirably with todays long route . Aye Gary that the signpost beside west kip , I usually just go up there to get The red road descent.

The Thief’s road from Baddinsgill as mentioned above is good. Best avoided if wet though!

You can get to the Convanter’s Grave from Edinburgh in a day, MTFU! However, I wouldn’t bother as there’s virtually no path on the group. Give me a min and I’ll dig out some pics….

Here you go:

Exploring the Southern Pentlands by wintericemonkey, on Flickr

Convanter’s Grave by wintericemonkey, on Flickr

"Path" from Convanter’s Grave to Crosswood by wintericemonkey, on Flickr

Stile on the "path" from Convanter’s Grave to Crosswood by wintericemonkey, on Flickr

A right of way in Scotland … Hmmm … by wintericemonkey, on Flickr

Nice pics – looked a good day for it. Now that I’ve seen a picture of the grave I reckon that will do me 🙂

Have you ever been up East Cairn hill Fraser? Just south of the Borestane. It’s quite an imposing hill by Pentlands standards so I’ve often wondered if it was worth investigating.

Garry – never been up East (or West for that matter) Cairn. There is a monster track going up East Cairn, would be interesting to see if a rideable descent could be found going down to join The Thieves Road.

Craigengar is another one I’d like to explore. There is a track up the southside marked on the map but I’m not sure what is on the ground…

Damn, you’ve got me looking at maps again 🙄 😉 . Thinking a Listonshiels – East Cairn – West Cairn – Craigengar – West Linton exploratory ride might be in order when if it dries up again.

I’m in Penicuik so know some of that area.

Best routes are the bore stane and cauldstane slap (only in the dry).
To get onto east kip, near the borestane top keep on the landy track and follow the wall all the way to east kip. A couple of interesting routes off there, but again only in the dry.

From the signpost in the first photo, there are 2 route down to 9 mile burn, both OK, and some other little bits that go back down to 8 mile burn area. Climb up from 9mb to spittal is harsh, but fun on the way down to the resr.
Again from the post, it is possible to stay high on the skyline all the way to the top of the spittal climb – but again only dry of frozen.
A bit further along the path, there is one that follows the wall along kitchen moss to the top of the borestane.

Have you ever been up East Cairn hill Fraser? Just south of the Borestane. It’s quite an imposing hill by Pentlands standards so I’ve often wondered if it was worth investigating.

I’ve camped on the top of East Cairn hill. There are some boggy bits between the Borestane and the top of the hill, but I can’t recall how much would have been bikeable.

I have done a few trips up the ‘far end’.

Usual start is at Carlops, then take the back road, turn in at Stonypath farm, and take the track round Faw Mount. Take the left fork down then up to the road. Follow the road till it turns into ‘Thieves Road’, then continue on it till Cauldstane Slap.

From the Slap, if you carry on to Harperrig, the path gets very boggy with lots of railway sleeper ‘bridges’ over the worst bits. Not fast or flowy, wet with lots of pushing.

I tried taking a right at the slap up onto East Cairn Hill. It is quite a hike up there, maybe 30 mins at least of bike carry. Unfortunately, the top of the hill is very boggy, and seems to be like a sponge, holding water all the time. I have never seen it dry. I like the view and the cairn at the top, but others may not care for so much hike-a-bike. Going down to the Borestane side of the hill on the landrover track is also boggy and the path is badly eroded from water running down the landrover tracks. If there was ever a heatwave for 2 weeks, maybe it would dry out enough to be ridable all the way, and would be a good if fragile descent. Coming off East Cairn the other way (climbing from Borestane, descending to Cauldstane) is about the same, except much steeper.

The path from Cauldstane to East Linton (Thieves Road) is great for about 1k, going toward East Linton it is going down and quite fun, going the other way is up and there are a good few rocks to get over.