Caerketton Hill

Caerketton Hill rises at the north-eastern end of the Pentland Hills, a chain of low peaks that stretches for about twenty-five kilometres between Edinburgh and Midlothian. The hill itself reaches 478 metres and overlooks the southern suburbs of the city one kilometre to the north. Loanhead lies two kilometres east, while Allermuir Hill and Woodhouselee Hill stand on the western and southern flanks. Three burns—the Swanston Burn, Lothian Burn and Boghall Burn—rise on its slopes and join the Burdiehouse Burn before flowing into the Firth of Forth at Eastfield. The summit holds the remains of a small cairn protected as a scheduled monument. The stones form a circle sixteen metres wide and stand about one and a half metres high. A flint arrowhead found on the western slope in 1970 shows early visitors left traces. On the east side a hill fort crowns a ten-metre-high crag, defended by at least one wall and a rampart on the west side, also protected as a scheduled monument. A dry ski run once operated on the northern flank. Visitors walk grassy paths that cross the open hilltop and follow the ridge towards Allermuir. The view stretches north over Edinburgh’s southern districts and south across Midlothian’s fields. The rocky outcrop of the hill fort offers a vantage point over the Lothian Burn valley. On clear days Arthur’s Seat and the castle appear in the distance. The cairn’s low ring of stones marks the highest point of the Pentlands.