Walk: Craiglockhart – the forgotten hill of Edinburgh

📌 Craiglockhart, City of Edinburgh
★★★

The city of Edinburgh is famously said to have been founded upon seven hills. Some – such as Arthur’s Seat and Calton Hill – are firmly on the tourist trail. Others, however, are generally only the preserve of knowledgeable locals, and perhaps none more so than Craiglockhart Hill. This small pocket of open space to the southwest of the city centre is hemmed in by a university, school, golf course and the former Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum so it appears on maps as if the remaining explorable area is rather limited. Perhaps the following list will convince you otherwise: a fine pond, extensive woodland, rocky crags, open grassland… and two summits for the price of one, separated by Glenlockhart Road.

📷 Chronological photo guide

🌍 Location

📌 Start / finish on Lockharton Crescent, Craiglockhart, 2 mi southwest of Edinburgh Waverley station

🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NT 231709

🛰️ GPS coordinates: 55.924927,-3.232187

🚌 Colinton Road | 🚆 Slateford (1 mi)

🚗 Street parking

📝 Key info

▶ 4 km / 2 mi | ▲ 160 m | ⌛ 1.5 hr

Features: △ Easter Craiglockhart Hill (157 m); △ Wester Craiglockhart Hill (176 m); 💧 Craiglockhart Pond

⬤ Moderate | Paths throughout – often steep & narrow if this exact route is used, particularly on descent from Wester Craiglockhart Hill.

➡️ Figure-of-8 circuit (clockwise for both halves): start – Easter Craiglockhart Hill via northern viewpoint – Glenlockhart Road – Wester Craiglockhart Hill by east side – descend to Glenlockhart Road by west side – Craiglockhart Pond – start

Download file for GPS

🥾 On our last visit

Wildlife: Swans and cygnets, mallards, tufted ducks, moorhens, coots, little grebes and black-headed gulls on Craiglockhart Pond. Woodland birds; a few voles on Wester Craiglockhart Hill.

Weather: Mostly cloudy to start with sun increasingly breaking through, temperature in low teens.

June 2020