AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Carnethy Hill is one of Scotland's most rewarding upland walks in miniature: a broad, cairn-crowned summit at 573 metres (1,880 ft), the second-highest point in the Pentland Hills, standing just ten miles from the centre of Edinburgh. Its distinctive shape — a shapely hump on the southern ridge of the range — has made it a landmark for locals and hill runners for generations.↗↗
The hill delivers a full day's sense of achievement in under two hours on foot. From the car park at Flotterstone, a steep grassy path cuts straight up the hillside to the summit, where a massive cairn and stone shelters mark the top. On a clear day, the panorama stretches from the Firth of Forth and Ochil Hills in the northwest to the Lammermuir and Moorfoot Hills rolling away to the south, with the twin reservoirs of Loganlea and Glencorse glinting in the valley below.↗↗
A Hill of Character
The name Carnethy is probably Cumbric in origin, thought to be cognate with the Welsh word for cairns — carneddau — a fitting etymology for a summit crowned with such a prominent pile of stones. The hill sits on the southern edge of the Pentland Hills, the range that forms Edinburgh's most accessible playground. Between Turnhouse Hill to the east and Scald Law (the Pentlands' highest point at 579 m) to the west, Carnethy forms part of a shapely ridge whose northern slopes fall away to a fertile cleft carved by the Logan Burn.
