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WALK 4

Three reservoirs

Start/Finish	Bonaly upper car park (NT211675)
Distance	9km
Total Ascent	214m
Time	2hr 30min
Maps	Ordnance Survey Landranger 66 or Ordnance Survey Explorer 344

A hill walk taking in three reservoirs. The going is generally easy, and there is a good mix of cultural heritage and wildlife to enjoy along the way. (It is possible to lengthen this route by walking to Harlaw and completing a circuit of the reservoir (Walk 6).)

1 Start at Bonaly upper car park, beyond the scout camp on Bonaly Road.

Note Alternative parking is available just beyond the bridge over the A720, and this is preferable in winter, when the narrow road can be icy and it is difficult to manoeuvre a vehicle. The route from the alternative parking passes Bonaly Tower, an integral part of the cultural heritage of the area.

Bonaly Tower was built for Lord Henry Cockburn in 1811. Cockburn was an outstanding lawyer, becoming solicitor-general in 1830 and a judge of the Court of Session in 1834. He was a popular and influential figure, well connected with the great and the good of the day. He founded the Friday Club with Sir Walter Scott in 1803, and often invited friends to spend a hill day at Bonaly. Among this circle were James Naysmith, the inventor of the steam hammer, and the artists David Octavius Hill and James Ballantyne. Bonaly Tower is a private residence, now divided into flats. Edinburgh Corporation purchased 65 acres of ground here for the city’s water supply, and thus formed the basis of Bonaly Country Park.

From the upper car park (NT211675) go through the gate and take the track that climbs steeply uphill into the plantations, following the signpost that indicates Glencorse until you reach a gate. Go through this gate, which opens out onto heather moorland, and keep on this track, going through yet another gate leading into Bonaly Reservoir compound. This is a distance of about 1km.

2 A few metres to the right, take a narrow path in the heather leading over to the north end of Bonaly Reservoir dam. Either walk along the top of the dam, or around the reservoir and then cross the spillway with care. From the spillway go right and then through a gate in the gap in the trees. Turn right here and follow a muddy path along the edge of the trees by a fence and dyke.

The prevailing westerly winds are often quite strong at Bonaly Reservoir, and it is fairly unsheltered, despite the encircling trees, but it is home to mallard ducks, redshanks and goldeneye, as well as common blue damselflies and common frogs.

3 Keep on this path as it starts to climb Harbour Hill – the ground can be boggy in places, especially near the flattish summit.

The name ‘Harbour’ is perhaps from the Anglian heorde-beorg, which means ‘hill of’ (or ‘for’) ‘flocks or herds’, ie a grazing where stock could be gathered before being shorn or driven to market (see S Harris, bibliography). Baldwin and Drummond suggest it was shown as Torbrack on Armstrong’s map of 1773, meaning ‘speckled hillock’ from the Gaelic torr breac.

In 1910 George Reith commented wryly of the view from here, ‘We try not to see the ugly chimneys and black smoke of the shale districts; we try also not to smell the latter: unsuccessfully, if the wind be in the north west.’ Things have definitely improved since his time – the views on a clear day are good.

4 Keep on the path to walk over Harbour Hill and descend to the good track at the bottom (NT213643), and turn right. Maiden’s Cleuch is the valley between Harbour Hill and Bell’s Hill. It crosses the col with a stone stile and a gate close to its crest. Down to the left is Glencorse Reservoir, and to the right, Harlaw and the north side of the hills. (It is possible to lengthen this route by walking north to Harlaw and completing a circuit of the reservoir (see Route 6).)

Maiden’s Cleugh – close up of stone stile

Maiden’s Cleuch is, according to S Harris (see bibliography), a 20th-century misnomer of what early maps, eg Roy 1753, call ‘Clochmead’ or ‘Clochmaid Gate’. The name appears to refer to the gate or track itself, rather than the col it crosses, which is hardly a cleuch or ravine, like Green Cleuch or Dens Cleuch. It is likely a corruption of the Celtic cloch or clach, meaning ‘a stone’. The stone is the huge boulder that forms the boundary and stile at the summit. But the name could also be Gaelic: cloch meid, ‘the stone at the middle of the pass’.

5 From the gate on the col, take the path to the right towards Harlaw and continue until you reach a gate at Cock Rig (marked on OS 344). Go through the gate and take the path, signposted to Currie, that follows the line of the drystane dyke to your right. You will reach another gate at the top of a conifer plantation. On the other side of the dyke are the remains of brick and stone buildings, now used as sheep pens, and possibly connected to the disused rifle ranges in this area.

6 From the gate at the top of the conifer plantation take a rough and stony track (locally called Ranges Road, but not named on the map) for approximately 1.5km to a white house (once a smiddy) on your right at the end of the road.