Habbie’s Howe and Peggy’s Pool- The Allan Ramsay Heritage Trail Red Route, Carlops

This walk is truly one of my favourite finds! I first discovered the area a couple of years ago after spending a good few hours of googling interesting places to explore locally (happy to put that work in so you don’t have to). I discovered a series of PDF maps that were seemingly once only available in a paper format from The Allan Ramsey Arms, a once popular pub and hotel on the main street in the tiny village of Carlops, which is just south of Penicuik, next to the back end of the Pentland Hills. The pub closed in 2021 and the PDFs are now freely available online. They detail a series of walks centered around a leafy, wooded dean known as Habbie’s Howe and are designated heritage trails dedicated to Scottish poet and playwright (and namesake of the pub) Allan Ramsey. Now, my knowledge of Scottish history is limited to say the least, and I am sorry to say that prior to finding this, I had never heard of Allan Ramsay, however the trails incorporate sections of his works into the landscape that obviously inspired them and this is a really lovely touch- I will explain what I mean as I describe the walk, but safe to say, I am now an Allan Ramsay fan.

The maps detail several different options of varying length, the walk I am going to describe here is the ‘red’ trail. It took us roughly 3 hours from start to finish, but we were in no hurry and took the whole gang including a newly 3-year old so make of that what you will. The interesting features around this area are absolutely endless- waterfalls, caves, rock formations, derelict buildings, stately homes, hills, reservoirs- this particular walk is absolutely packed with adventure and brilliant fun for little ones. Also dog-friendly so that’s another box ticked- it is well worth the short drive into Midlothian.

The walk begins in the main public carpark for Carlops on the main road, directly opposite Carlops Village Hall. There is a gigantic rocky crag to the rear of the carpark, it is very hard to miss! Exit the car park and turn left then immediately left again into the field, passing a workshop space on your left. There is a small playpark here that look as if it his seen better days, but is still a welcome attraction for my rascally boys! The path continues past the playpark towards a small footbridge that crosses a burn and leads onto a road. There are a couple of wooden signs dotted about here with poems inscribed in both Gaelic and English- I didn’t quite understand at first, but I have now realised that each poem relates to the types of tree planted around it, one is dedicated to silver birch, another to the rowan etc. Now I am a self-proclaimed tree fanatic, so this had me sold on Allan Ramsay from the very beginning of the walk!

Once over the small bridge you need to turn left and walk along the road for a short while, past a field of particularly hairy ponies and a delightfully meandering stream on the left. It is a pretty quiet road but is single lane with passing places. We always seem to come here at particularly rainy times of the year (or maybe its just always like this- Scotland after all?!) but the last time, the littlest one took it upon himself to randomly nose-dive into a particularly muddy puddle along this stretch, thus starting the walk exactly as he meant to go on!

Meandering stream and looking up to the avenue of trees on the left

Follow the road until you reach a delightful stone cottage and two large stone obelisks framing a path that heads up into the woods. Pass between these great, grey pillars and head up the hill. On a side note, because I can’t possibly let it pass without comment- you will at this point be able to look down into the garden of the stone cottage from this vantage point and note that it is absolute perfection! A sheer haven of nature that the owners have beautifully created, I genuinely could not believe the volume of birdsong!, a full concerto was originating from that small, beautiful plot. Oh to have a garden like that! Anyhow, once again, I digress...

Muddy pathways through the woods in early spring…

Once you reach the top of this wide grassy avenue, framed by ancient trees you will reach a bit of a junction. There are a couple of signposts just about visible up ahead but the path into the woods starts before that, keep right here, passing through the gap in the fence into ‘Habbies Howe’. The paths here are extremely muddy, and very boggy in places- boot are highly recommended! Stay on the main path as it follows along the top of the gorge, depending on the season, you might be able to see right across to the other side, where an impressive modern, family house stands amongst a backdrop of rolling fields, and down into the gorge itself you may be able to view the rushing white-water- your first glimpse of ‘Peggy’s Pool’. Keep walking this path, there is a particularly boggy where it appears to split as it weaves through the trees, and just after this a slightly more open area of woodland with a particularly large pair of trees to the right that can be explored where the trunks almost intertwine. You can also see out to open farmland beyond this. I describe this area because this is the point at which you need to leave the main path and take a sharp left hand turning to descend the gorge. It is not an overly obvious turn off, and appears steeper than it actually is from the top but you will know it when you see it. That path turns you back on yourself and zig-zags down the side of gorge- it is narrow, and the drops are steep, though our kids managed it just fine- do take care. At the bottom is a wooden bridge over the river, cross and turn left to find yourself standing at the magical ‘Peggy’s Pool’.

I have visited Peggy’s pool on two separate occasions and so different was each experience that it may as well have been two different places! The first time was on a torrentially rainy summers day. The whole area surrounding the waterfall was lush and green and calm- I truly felt that I had stepped into a fairytale. The waterfall was flowing gently and the pool was crystal clear, still and inviting. On that occasion we waded through the water and scrambled up to the top of the waterfall on the other side. This remains one of my favourite family memories, discovering and exploring this secret treasure! More recently, we visited in the spring following a period of prolonged rainfall. Most of the trails were thick with mud and the waterfall was absolutely raging. White and foamy and roaring, the burn full and fast flowing, I wouldn’t let the kids into the water this time for fear of them being whisked away. Baron trees expose the area and it had a very different feel, more intimidating for sure, powerful nature at work. Magical none the less.

From Peggy’s pool, backtrack a few yards and you will notice that you have a couple of options. For this route you must ignore the path that heads up the bank on the left, instead re-tracing your steps back to the bridge but do not cross back over, continue past and follow the narrow path that follows alongside the stream. There are a couple of well-maintained boardwalks and then another wooden bridge- this all has a very ‘Indian Jones’ feel to it somehow, a great adventure for a family marching onwards in single-file. The path now follows along the opposite bank of the river. Soon you will arrive at the next epic landmark on this exceptionally awesome trail- a proper full-blown, explorable cave! Complete with a hanging moss ceiling and windows. This is very, very cool- I knew it was coming but actually finding and exploring it myself with all of my adventure-buddies was just awesome!

Directly opposite the cave is yet another wee bridge, cross this one and you are met with a slight break in the woodland canopy, the paths become surreal mossy grass and present a T junction. This was the only section in the old directions that I was following where I got a bit confused and made the wrong call.. that is to your benefit though because I can confidently confirm that taking the path up to the left which climbs the hill will bring you out to the grounds of a large stately home with an excessive amount of animal statues within the grounds. Incredibly, I recognised this instantly as Newhall Estate- we attended a good friend’s wedding here a couple of years ago, but I had absolutely no idea that this was where it was, so stumbling upon it was a massive surprise! We immediately recreated our ‘guest’ photos against the old front door before I spotted someone in the window... who did not look best pleased to see us. It is a privately owned property so taking the hint, I yanked my feral children from whichever stone elephant they were currently attempting to ‘ride’- (no I had not actually allowed them to do this, but 3 year-olds are not best known for following their parents instructions....) and quickly scampered back down the path to the T-junction where this time the right hand spur took us where I had actually expected to end up- a lovely grassy, tranquil clearing known as the ‘drying green’ and a fallen-down cottage slowly being claimed by nature with a babbling brook running past it.

Across the green back at the main stream is another bridge with a different feel to it- no barriers to hold on to here, it is more like a platform, and the path at the other side is muddy and overgrown. This takes you to another unusual rock formation, similar to the cave from earlier but not as fun. I took a photo and scrambled back over to the derelict hut. Back on the path, this shortly takes a left-hand turn and a steep climb up the bank and back into the trees. At the top is a stone wall marking the outer boundary of the ‘Howe’ and a gate offering a brief glimpse back into the world outside- lush countryside and rolling hills, by this point I had forgotten there was even a world outside of the Howe! Continue past the gate and the path dives back down again to another junction. You will be able to see an impressive ‘aspirational’ house in open land to left, take a sharp right here in the opposite direction, heading back on yourself. The stream is still below you and a final bridge will be visible up ahead. Just as you approach this bridge, on the right is another rocky outcrop attached to which is a plaque, a verse from one of Allan Ramsey’s plays is inscribed on this by way of a reminder that you are still walking in his world, and for just a moment, in his shoes.

Looking down to one final bridge crossing

Cross over the last bridge and on to another decision, turning right will allow you to hug the banks of the river eventually meeting the path you travelled earlier, passed the rock formation and then the cave. At this point, given how muddy we knew that path was, we opted instead to turn left and climb the banks of the gorge to walk back along the top instead. We met the stone wall marking the boundary of the Howe on this side, marveling at a desirable farm setup in the valley below, tracking a long this boundary in a fairly straight line until eventually, Peggy’s Pool became visible below us and we found ourselves right back where we started at the entrance to the Howe! From here it is a case of retracing your steps, down the ancient avenue of trees, back through the stone pillars, down the road and into the field, through the little footbridge, past the playpark and back to the carpark. Just like that. But what a special little hike! Who knew all of that adventure was hiding, just snucked away in the shadow of the Pentland Hills?! Adventure really is all around us, the trick is knowing where to look!!!

Habbie’s Howe and Peggy’s Pool- The Allan Ramsay Heritage Trail Red Route, Carlops

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