Explore!

This is our go-to walk for an hour of fresh air and nature. It has become very familiar territory indeed. Yet, such is nature’s endless capacity to surprise and delight, that we can still be amazed even on a home patch that we know so well.

This 6km walk takes in Eliburn Reservoir, woodland paths and some historic sites. Eliburn Reservoir, created in the 1970s, acts as both a flood prevention measure and a water source for the town of Livingston. It’s also home to a variety of wildlife and is a popular course fishing site.

Enjoy 360 degree views after a hike up Corston Hill. Way-marked by Friends of the Pentlands, an unsurfaced and slightly more challenging walk, but well worth it

On a clear day you can pick out all the features of the landscape - the three bridges striding across the Forth, the Ochils, Berwick Law and Bass Rock in the distance to the east, the pink shale bings slumbering in the fields closer home, the plain of Almond Valley with all its settlements, and Edinburgh beyond. Take a pair of binoculars and see how much you can pick out.

This has been the simplest of walks, and easy out-and-back, but one which can nevertheless take you on a journey in more ways than one.

There’s a wonderful array of paths and routes on offer through Heriot Watt University's landscaped grounds – the Discovery Trail, the Tree Trail, the Bird Trail, the Heritage Trail - which to choose?

If you’re very fit, you can stride or cycle along the 13 miles of the Walkway from Balerno to Leith in a day. If you’re super-fit, you could run it in a couple of hours. Never super-fit and no longer even very fit, I needed to spin the walk out in short sections over my four weeks-a-waiting. I decided to treat the walk a bit like a jigsaw. It didn’t matter what order I did the sections in, as long as I put all the ‘pieces’ together by the end.

I set off into the hazy morning sunshine, heading south-east between the fields at West Rigg, and I’m immediately rewarded by the sight of geese and whooper swans grazing in the field to my left. The whoopers’ necks loop elegantly as they stoop to pluck grass with smooth yellow and black bills - my destination, Hare Hill, their distant backdrop. To start this walk, I parked in a small layby at the end of Cockburnhill Road where it meets Rigg Road above Balerno. An easier star

The woods give way more open country - scrubland dotted with lichen-encrusted hawthorn - which today feels more like Siberian tundra. I pass a stance of tall pines on a little hill before descending to meet the path coming from Mid Calder.

I pass under one of the nine mighty arches of the Camps Viaduct. A narrow, peaked-roof wooden shelter has been built under the arch to protect pedestrians - it looks like it has been lifted straight out of Hobbiton. A little farther on, I come upon a majestic old beech tree by the path, giant roots running like quicksilver through the deep carpet of fallen leaves lying below its immense form.

My walk today is in Selm Muir Wood, a tract of forest managed by Forestry and Land Scotland lying midway between the Lanark Road and the A71, yet easily overlooked.

The top of Currie’s Kirkgate is the starting point for my foray into the Pentlands today, a circuit of four reservoirs, each with its own different attributes and welcoming cast of characters.

This area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and it’s easy to see why, with the wonderful variety of landscape, flora and fauna to be found here. As I cast my eye back the way I came, a low rumble signals the passage of the West Coast Line.

This Pentland foothill lies just north of Capelaw Hill, peaking at a modest, tree-clad 318 metres. The ambience of nature’s crucible is calming, the clamour of the busy roads below rapidly forgotten.

With cafes at Balerno and Currie offering a half-way stop should you need it, this walk can be started at either end and is a great way to help achieve your 10,000 daily steps.

his short, quiet walk retraces the steps of Currie poet James Thomson, incorporating elements of the nature and local farming life that inspired his verse.

Although this will be an otherwise perfectly level walk, we begin by descending and ascending the many steps as we go down, beneath the Almond Aqueduct, and back up the other side so we can access the walkway on the far bank. This proves ample demonstration of the imposing height of this Victorian engineering triumph.

Just across the county border into South Lanarkshire is a historic site that calls itself “the birthplace of the Scottish Industrial Revolution.” Besides some interesting history, the site of the Wilsontown Ironworks is a good venue for a peaceful walk and picnic if you’re looking for a change of scenery.

A scenic autumn walk through the Pentland Hills, rich with wildlife, vibrant heather, and sweeping views. The walk is around 2-3 hours each way to the reservoir.

One of summer’s pleasures is the extended light, meaning we can head out after work for some exercise, fresh air - or preferably both. Saughton Park is a place that meets those needs in abundance and has done so for Edinburgh residents over multiple generations.