Panoramic image of the Pentland Hills
The Pentlands have long been a been a
source of inspiration to some of Scotland’s most celebrated
artists, poets and authors. Indeed they remains so to a current
generation of digital photographers, web artists, storytellers
and performance poets!
Perhaps one of the first pieces of literature about this area is Y Gododdin - a Welsh poem, written about 600 AD by Aneirin which celebrates the Votadini peoples of what has become known as the Lothians and their ultimate defeat in battle. Read about it on the (External) Ancient Scotland website.
Allan Ramsay, the famous 18th century poet, songwriter, and playwright, based The Gentle Shepherd at Habbie’s Howe near Carlops which features the scenery of the upper reaches of the North Esk. Or does it, there remains some debate? Its worth checking out that part of the Pentlands, just in case and if all else fails you can justify a walk with a visit to the Allan Ramsay pub in the village!
Useful link: (External) BBC Writing Scotland Allan Ramsay
During the great Scottish diaspora,
many recalled the landscape that was imprinted on them as they
left for pastures new, in lands far away. This broadside ballad,
Scottish Emigrants Fareweel
recalls a Pentland
climb.
Fareweel, fareweel, my native hame,
Thy lonely glens an' heath clad mountain
Fareweel thy fields o' storied fame,
Thy leafy shaws an' sparklin fountains
Nae mair I'll climb the Pentland's steep,
Nor wander by the Esk's clear river,
I seek a hame far o'er the deep,
My native land, fareweel for ever.
(1860-1890)
Now mirk December's dowie face
Glours our the rigs wi' sour grimace,
While, thro' his minimum of space,
The bleer-ey'd sun
Wi' blinkin light and stealing pace,
His race doth run.From naked groves nae birdie sings,
To shepherd's pipe nae hillock rings,
The breeze nae od'rous flavour brings
From Borean cave,
And dwyning nature droops her wings,
Wi' visage grave.Mankind but scanty pleasure glean
Frae snawy hill or barren plain,
Whan Winter, 'midst his nipping train,
Wi' frozen spear,
Sends drift owr a' his bleak domain,
And guides the weir.Auld Reikie! thou'rt the canty hole,
A bield for mony caldrife soul,
Wha snugly at thine ingle loll,
Baith warm and couth;
While round they gar the bicker roll
To weet their mouth.
Although it is said Robert Burns and the painter Alexander Nasmyth frequently walked in the Pentlands, we can’t find a specific reference to these hills by our national bard. Clearly he was too busy in the taverns of Edinburgh .
It is to Sir Walter Scott we turn, who derived
inspiration from Carnethy Hill describing,
“I think I never saw anything more beautiful then the ridge of Carnethy against a clear frosty sky,
with its peaks and varied slopes.
The hills glowed like purple amethyst;
the sky glowed topaz and vermillion colours.
I never saw a finer screen than Pentland,
considering that it is neither rocky or elevated.”
No literary visit to the Pentlands would be
complete without mention of Robert Louis Stevenson. The hills
loom large at the beginning and end of his literary life.
Residing in his summer home in Swanston, the sights, sounds and
character of the Pentlands seemed to resonate within Stevenson
and abide with him throughout our his extensive travels:
Blows the wind to-day, and the sun and the rain are flying,
Blows the wind on the moors to-day and now,
Where about the graves of the martyrs the whaups are crying,
My heart remembers how!Gray recumbent tombs of the dead in desert places,
Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moor,
Hills of sheep, and the homes of the silent vanished races,
And winds, austere and pure:Be it granted me to behold you again in dying,
Hills of home! and to hear again the call;
Hear about the graves of the martyrs the peewees crying,
And hear no more at all.
From To SR Crockett
Useful links:
(External)
BBC
Writing Scotland - Robert Louis Stevenson
(External)
National
Library of Scotland - A Child's Garden by R L Stevenson
For more information about the life and works of Robert Burns, Sir Walter
Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson as well as other Scottish writers visit
the (External)
Writers
Museum
in Lady Stairs Close, Edinburgh.
The poet Edwin Muir was another Pentland visitor. A memorial bench
dedicated to him rests in Swanston village.
Will H Ogilvie, a Borders poet from Kelso who emigrated to Australia,
wrote "In Pentland Wine”:
Up here with the wind in our faces,
And the brown heath under our feet,
We look through the shimmering spaces
Over tower and steeple and street
To the lion splendidly sleeping,
To the tall Crags silent and grey,
To the Castle its grim guard keeping,
And the shining shield of the Bay.Behind us the mists of the valley
Lie low on the moorland’s breast,
With the bonnie banks of Bonaly
In the grey of the winter dressed.
The west wind, wanting, is chiding
Glencorse with the scourge of its whips,
And the wild ducks over it riding
Are tossed like storm-tossed ships.Up here with the clean winds blowing,
I look to you, City of mine,
I fill me a goblet o’erflowing
And pledge you in Pentland wine!
With a full heart thrilled by your story,
While the hills stand round you, like kings,
I drink to your lasting glory
In the wine that the hill-wind brings!
A couple of other verses with Pentland connections
are found in the following links
(External)
The
Atholl Road
(External)
The
Scottish Emigrant's Farewell
Image of ferns
Image of park visitors
Image of a field of flowers
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Pentland
Hills Regional Park, Boghall Farm, Edinburgh, EH10 7DX, UK
Telephone 0131 445 3383 | Fax 0131 445 3003 | Email
pentlandhills@edinburgh.gov.uk