Cauldstane Slap and the Cross Borders Drove Road Show path on map
Start location: A70 (Lang Whang) at Little Vantage ( NT 101 628 )
End location: Road end, Standalane, Peebles ( NT 245 416 )
Geographical area: Lothian and Borders
Path type: Drove Road
Path distance: 37km
Accessibility info: Suitable for bikes, Suitable for horses, Suitable for pedestrians, Survey required
Route Description
Beside the A70 at Little Vantage, a set of signs indicates the Thieves Road to West Linton via the Cauldstane Slap. Conveniently, the Pentland Hills Regional Park has a small car park here. The path heads south-southeast and descends to cross the Water of Leith (footbridge). It then climbs gradually to the pass (Cauldstane Slap) between the West and East Cairn Hills, and in a further 1km south, this path becomes a track which goes down past Baddinsgill Reservoir. From there, a road continues down to West Linton, first crossing an old Roman Road which was later used as the road to Biggar.
From West Linton, take the B7059 southeast by Broomlee to the Moffat (A701) road, cross and go along the adjacent farm road southwest for 800m. Then go uphill by Romanno House Farm and southeast over the hill to Fingland Burn by a broad grassy track. On the south of Green Knowe at NT186462 take the lower track and at NT188461 (where a track leads round the hill to Fingland) take the footpath through a gate into the forest, across the stream and east through the forest to Greenside (or Courhope). From there go uphill and in about 270m leave the main track by taking the right-hand fork to cross a forest ride and continue up over the hill, descending to Upper and then (along the Old Post Road) to Nether Stewarton. From there go east to the Lyne road and then south along it for about 500m, then turn left on the road to Upper Kidston. There, take a left to cross the stream and go round north and east of Hamilton Hill to a broad track leading to Peebles.
This route is almost entirely accessible to horse riders and cyclists as most of it forms part of the South of Scotland Countryside Trails (SoSCT) network. The fence in the middle of the Cauldstane Slap marks a local authority boundary and, although there is a gate, from that point north the route is less accessible. However improvements have been made to this section’s accessibility, so for the latest information visit the SoSCT website.
The Cross Borders Drove Road continues as an SoSCT promoted trail using parts of the Gypsy Glen Drove Road and the Minchmoor Track.
*It is now feasible to reach the start of the walk at Little Vantage from Kirknewton (station). Head south from Kirknewton along the Leyden Road under the railway bridge and past Latch Farm. After about a mile and a half, there is a small car park on right for Selm Muir Wood. A prominent fingerpost indicates the way to the Thieves Road and West Linton. Taking the track into the forest for 500m, turn left at a fingerpost, leaving the edge of wood and into a field. The farm track first drops down and then rises to Leyden Farm, where you will see the Hilly Coo Wigwams. Bear right around the farm complex, turn right (NT100633) up the waymarked track past a modern house and into a large field. Take track up and across a field to a gate with guide post (NT101638). Follow waymarked route around small disused quarry and across rough grassland to the Little Vantage car park.
OS Landranger 65 (Falkirk & West Lothian), 72 (Upper Clyde Valley) and 73 (Peebles, Galashiels & surrounding area)
Heritage Information
William Roy's Military Survey (Lowlands, 1752-55) marks The Caldstane Slapp and labels it Road to the Queens ferry. A "slap" is a pass, the root of which can be seen in Aberdeenshire's Slug Road in Aberdeenshire, the Slochd on the A9 south of Inverness, and likely Galloway's Corse of Slakes. Cauldstane (cold stone) may refer to the wind that can whip over the pass; when walked it feels like a very remote and quiet place.
This route was a drove road, marked as such on maps since at least 1773; cattle were driven from Falkirk and north of there, down through West Linton continuing to Peebles and St Mary's Loch, eventually to England. In 1952's The Drove Roads of Scotland, ARB Haldane shows this route on his map as the only one by which cattle were taken south from the central belt. While it is unlikely to be the sole route, it was of considerable importance, so surely will have had tens of thousands of cattle travelling across it every year. In the reverse direction, sheep from the Linton markets were driven to the Highlands, probably about 30,000 annually. It remained in use as such until the late nineteenth century, and Haldane's book includes droving memories from the then current tenant of Harper Rig which also included reports from his father and grandfather, such as early snow being reddened by the feet of the cattle, and drovers sleeping with their beasts at the stances.
This route is also known, as many drove roads are, as the Thieves Road; it must have been used by a fair number of cattle thieves as well as legitimate traders. As late as 1600, there is a record of a party of Scotts and Armstrongs stealing 80 cattle and taking them southwards along this path, leaving several dead and wounded in their wake.
In early June 1684, Colstouneslope (or Cairnehill) is given as the location of a field Coventicle, the preacher thought likely to be James Renwick. The isolation of shire boundary sites such as this one is said to have made them especially favoured for field preaching. The actual location may been at Wolf Craigs which lies above the Baddinsgill Burn at the southern extent of West Cairn Hill. Perhaps this event was the inspiration behind the opening chapter of John Buchan's 1915 book Salute to Adventurers, for he places its first encounter with the "crazed prophet" Muckle John Gib at the Cauldstaneslap in 1685.
As it approaches West Linton, the old drove road passes Medwyn House which reportedly contains an older building within it, Bridgehouse. Aaron Arrowsmith's map of 1807 shows this old cross-Pentland route with Bridge Ho marked beside it just before Linton. Bridgehouse was reportedly a coaching inn, and the innkeeper was friendly with Robert Burns (1759-96), who twice came to visit without finding his friend present. Burns scratched the following into a window pane: "Honest Graham, aye the same, never to be found at hame".
