Penfai one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Penfai here.

I walked this route in reverse, from Fairmilehead to Penicuik, on a bright and warm April Saturday. It's a walk of two halves, with an access problem in the middle - surmountable, but you can't follow the plotted route for a bit.

There are shops and a cafe at Fairmilehead, then nothing until Penicuik.

The first half of the route is along busy roads, and not very pleasant. From Fairemilehead, the route drops down the main road to the Lothianburn junction where one of Edinburgh's main access roads - the A702 - crosses its ring road - A720. The route crosses the on- and off-ramps of the A720, which are busy and carrying fast traffic, particularly the on-ramp. I got across unharmed, but I do worry about Slow Ways which put walkers in this degree of danger. From there, the route follows the A702 out of Edinburgh, before turning onto the A703. These are both fast roads. They have a pavement the whole length of this route, but traffic is flying past only feet away. On the plus side, the views open up, to the Pentland hills on the right, and across Midlothian farmland on the left. Nonetheless, I did not enjoy this section.

At Easter Bush, the route leaves the main roads, and passes through Edinburgh University's Easter Bush campus, and on into the Bush Estate. This section is a delight: interesting buildings, attractive grounds, more Pentland views and countryside. On a Saturday, it was all very quiet - I imagine it would be busier on a weekday, but a fairly slow sort of busy. Beyond Bush House, the route drops down to the pretty Glencorse Burn and past Glencorse House Unfortunately at this point the route takes a narrow and muddy path - up to now it has been 100% tarmac. This path poses little problem to a walker, and (judging by the tyre tracks) little problem to a bicycle, but I strongly suspect it would be impassable in a wheelchair. The map suggests that alternatives are available, but I didn't explore them. Reaching Belwood Road, the route hits the access problem - a new housing development has cut off the path it used to follow. I simply turned left onto Belwood Road and reached the A701 somewhat further North than intended. This isn't a terribly good idea, it's another fast main road. The previous review by Ben suggests a much better plan, to cut through the Greenlaw Mains estate.

After a brief return to busy main road walking, the route turns past Beeslack School and through Beeslack Wood. This is another pleasant green haven, away from busy roads, which I really enjoyed walking through. The plotting here is simplistic, and misses a lot of detail. I followed it too literally, and found myself looking down a ravine to the path I should have been on way below me. Luckily a switchback path came to my rescue, but on studying the map later on I realised that beyond Beeslack School, I should have taken a path down to the Loan Burn rather than trying to follow the plotted straight line. No harm done though, I rejoined the plotted route on to the Dalkeith to Penicuik cycle path, a delightful tarmaced trail beside the River North Esk. Shortly before Penicuik, the route turns away from the nice flat cycle path, and climbs an evil flight of steps into Penicuik centre. I strongly suspect there is a less arduous route following the cycle path a bit further, then turning up Bridge Street.

It's hard to summarise this route, it has two very different halves. Overall, 3 stars: it gets the job done, has some lovely sections, but also has 5km of horrible main road walking. Final point: the plotting is indicative in parts, I strongly recommend studying the map beforehand to figure out where the actual paths are relative to the plotted straight lines, and to work out a way around the access problem at Bellwood Road/Greenlaw Mains.

I have not walked all of this route but am familiar with it. Some bits are really nice. Although, the bit beside the A703 may not be very pleasant due to the fast traffic, it is accessible whereas alternatives would be challenging for people who are not very mobile.

This was an interesting route and took me along paths and roads I hadn't walked. I particularly liked the stretch from Penicuik to the Bush Estate. One issue with the route was that the path through Greenlaw Mains wasn't available. It has been fenced off for a housing development. I cut through a housing estate to the east of the route and joined Belwood Rd that way to rejoin the original route. Photo shows the problem!.

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