Scotland's Donalds

Alhang (642m) sits on the Dumfriesshire–Ayrshire watershed between Glen Afton and the Scaur Water, a smooth grassy whaleback at the western end of the Lowther–Carsphairn chain. It is overshadowed by Blackcraig Hill to the north and Windy Standard's wind farm to the south, yet retains a quiet character — broad pastoral slopes rising into open moor crowned by a small turf-grown cairn.

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Andrewhinney Hill is the high point of the long ridge that runs north from the head of the Moffat Water towards Ettrick. A small cairn on a slight knoll gives a fine view over Bodesbeck Law and down into the Grey Mare's Tail glen.

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The highest of the eastern Lowther Hills, Ballencleuch Law stands above the Dalveen Pass between Durisdeer and Wanlockhead. A scatter of stones beside a fence corner marks the summit, with the radar domes on Green Lowther catching the eye to the north-west.

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Beinn nan Eun (631m) — the hill of the birds — is a rolling moorland top above Glen Lednock north of Comrie, where the Highland Boundary Fault throws up its first serious peaks. The summit is unmarked among a wide spread of flat heather; the trig column for Auchnafree Hill lies further north. Beinn nan Eun looks out across Loch Earn to the Trossachs and up to the Ben Chonzie massif.

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Bell Craig (623m) sits between Loch of the Lowes and the upper Ettrick, a rolling green top on the long watershed dividing Yarrow from Moffat Water. The summit is marked only by a fence junction — the high point lies a couple of metres east of the corner. Bell Craig joins Capel Fell and Andrewhinney Hill in a series of paired summits that ring the Loch Skeen amphitheatre to the west.

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Ben Cleuch is the highest of the Ochils — Scotland's great volcanic wall between the Forth and Strathallan. A circular windshelter wraps the trig pillar, and on a fair day the view stretches from the Pentlands across the Forth to the Trossachs and the southern edge of the Highlands.

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Birkscairn Hill stands on the long ridge running south from Peebles between the Glensax and Quair valleys. A large rough cairn — visible for miles on a clear day — caps a heathery plateau, the only real high point on this stretch of the Manor watershed.

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Black Law sits east of Talla Reservoir on the inner watershed, a small handful of stones beside the boundary fence marking the top. The name is common in the Borders for any dark heathery rise — and this one fits the bill.

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Blackcraig Hill stands above the Afton Water in East Ayrshire, on the wild moorland watershed between Glen Afton and Glen Muck. A modest cairn sits atop a flat grassy crown, with the famous bowl of Glen Afton — Burns's "sweet Afton" — falling away on the eastern side.

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Blackhope Scar is the second-highest of the Moorfoot Hills, a broad rounded top above the Gladhouse Reservoir and the upper Esk. The summit is unmarked but for a small cairn at the crown of the moor — a fine wild spot within sight of Edinburgh.

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Blacklorg Hill sits on the wild watershed between Glen Afton and the Water of Ken, west of the bigger bulk of Blackcraig Hill. A cairn beside an iron fence-post marks the top of a long ridge of dark heather running south towards Cairnsmore of Carsphairn.

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Blairdenon Hill (631m) is the western terminus of the Ochil watershed, a broad grassy dome rising above Sherrifmuir and the Allan Water. A vegetated rock marks the highest point of an otherwise featureless top, and the trig is set further along the ridge. The hill is known to local walkers as the wettest of the Ochil Donalds — its peaty plateau drains slowly toward both the Forth and the Allan.

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Bodesbeck Law forms the southern bookend of the long Bodesbeck Ridge above the Moffat Water. A small cairn sits on a rocky knot at the southern tip of the ridge, with a dramatic drop into the Selcoth Burn glen at your feet.

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Bowbeat Hill (626m) is the highest point of the Moorfoots, a rolling heather plateau rising south of Edinburgh between Eddleston and Heriot. The summit is unmarked among the turbines of the Bowbeat Wind Farm — the first commercial windfarm in the Borders, commissioned in 2002. The hill's broad back is crossed by service roads that have transformed access since the turbines arrived.

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The highest hill in the Borders, with a flat-as-a-pancake summit topped by an aircraft beacon. The view of the Tweedsmuir hills rolling away in every direction is the reward. Standard ascent from Peebles covers 7 km with 380 m of climbing.

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Cairnsgarroch — 'rough cairn' in Gaelic — is the high point of the moorland east of the Carsphairn group, between the Water of Ken and the Rhinns of Kells. An embedded boulder topped with a small cairn sits on a flat heather summit.

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Big rounded Galloway hill that dominates the village of Carsphairn above the A713. The view across to the Galloway Forest Park is exceptional on a clear day, and the upland sheep ground gives easy walking despite the height.

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A great granite whaleback above the Cree estuary, Cairnsmore of Fleet is one of three Cairnsmores in Galloway and the southernmost 2000-foot Donald. The cairn-strewn summit hosts a memorial to wartime aircrew who came to grief on its broad upper slopes during World War Two.

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Cape Law links the Hart Fell massif to the Moffat watershed near Talla Reservoir, an angular fence corner at its top giving the only orientation point. The interior of the Moffats opens out from here in a long lonely panorama.

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Capel Fell looks south to the head of Eskdalemuir from the south rim of the Ettrick basin. The Southern Upland Way crosses the watershed just west of the cairn — a meeting point of long-distance walkers and the few hill-baggers who pass this way.

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A close neighbour of Corserine on the Rhinns of Kells, Carlin's Cairn carries one of the most impressive summit cairns in Galloway — a great drystone tower said to have been raised by an old woman in gratitude to Robert the Bruce. The view west to the Awful Hand of Merrick is superb.

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Cauldcleuch Head (618m) is the highest hill of the Hawick Hills, an isolated rolling dome rising between Teviotdale and Liddesdale. Its 256m of re-ascent gives it standing well above its neighbours — visible from the M74 corridor and from miles of Border road. The summit is little more than a patch of ground beside a fence junction, but the prominence and isolation make the hill a far better outing than the description suggests.

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Chapelgill is a neat little outlier south of Culter Fell, sandwiched between Culter Glen and the headwaters of the Holms Water. The summit is unmarked — just a patch of trampled bare earth — but the perspective back along the Culter Fell ridge is one of the best in South Lanarkshire.

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Comb Law is a high but quiet Lowther top east of Wedder Law, on the long watershed running north towards the Lowther Hill radar station. The summit is an unmarked rise in close-cropped grass beside the boundary fence.

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Coran of Portmark (623m) is the northernmost summit of the Rhinns of Kells ridge in the Galloway Hills, looking down on Loch Doon and the Carrick Forest. A small cairn caps the granite top, with the rough whaleback continuing south to Bow and Meaul. The Glenkens and the Solway open out to the south — on clear days the Isle of Man sits low on the horizon beyond the firth.

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The high point of the Rhinns of Kells in Galloway, looking west across the Silver Flowe to Merrick. Less famous than its neighbour Merrick but a quieter and arguably finer hill day on a long, well-shaped ridge.

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Craignaw is one of the wildest Donalds — a bare, ice-scoured granite ridge at the centre of the Dungeon range with Loch Enoch immediately west and the Round Loch of the Dungeon below. A cairn perched on a huge erratic boulder marks the summit.

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Cramalt Craig is the second-highest summit in the Tweedsmuir Hills, sitting on the long whaleback ridge that runs north from Broad Law above the Megget Reservoir. A cairn beside a fence corner marks the top of an otherwise featureless dome of pale moor grass — wonderful in spring sun, bewildering in cloud.

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Croft Head (636m) is a rough little hill at the eastern end of the Moffat Hills, where the Southern Upland Way climbs out of Selcoth and Ettrick. Steep flanks of crag and scree drop south into Selcoth Burn — unusual for this rolling country — and the summit itself is little more than a patch of bare peat. From the top you look directly across to the Loch Fell ridge and west into the Moffat horseshoe.

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Culter Fell is the highest point in South Lanarkshire, looking down on the Clyde valley and the village of Coulter. A white trig pillar crowns the rounded summit. From the top the eye runs up the Tweed to the Manor Hills and out to Tinto and the western Ochils.

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Curleywee — 'the curlew's call' in old Gaelic — is the rocky pyramid above Loch Dee in the Minnigaff hills. Its small summit perches on craggy granite, more like a Highland top than the typical Donald, and the look back to Lamachan from the cairn is the finest view in the group.

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Dollar Law lords it over the head of the Manor Valley south of Peebles, a great green shoulder of grass with a white-painted trig pillar set into the moss. It is the high point of an outstanding ridge that loops round to Cramalt Craig and Broad Law.

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Drumelzier Law overlooks the Tweed valley below Broughton, the western end of the long Manor Hills ridge. A bare patch of trampled grass marks the unmarked top, with the wedge of Tinto rising across Tweeddale to the west.

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A quiet top on the rolling watershed between the Dalveen Pass and the upper Daer reservoir, Dun Law is one of the easier Lowther Donalds. A small heap of stones sits on a flattish plateau of sheep-cropped grass, with views east across the Daer to Queensberry.

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Dun Rig is the prized objective of the long ridge that runs south from Peebles between the Glensax and Manor valleys — wonderful walking country on a clear day. The bare grassy mound at the top is a fine spot to take in the upper Tweed.

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Dundreich (623m) is the highest of the southern Moorfoots, a heather-clad pyramid rising directly behind the village of Eddleston in the Tweed Valley. A neat summit cairn caps the broad top, with views down to Portmore Loch and across to the Pentlands. The hill carries the remains of an Iron Age fort on its lower spur — a reminder that this ground has been walked and watched for millennia.

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Dungeon Hill (620m) lies at the heart of the Dungeon of Buchan, the rough, lochan-pocked wilderness between the Awful Hand and the Rhinns of Kells. A bare rock slab marks the summit. This is one of the loneliest Donalds — the nearest road is hours away on foot, and the Round Loch of the Dungeon, Loch Neldricken and Murder Hole lie in the basin below. Linked southwards to Craignaw and northwards to Mullwharchar.

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Earncraig Hill (611m) is a green dome at the eastern end of the Lowther Hills group, looking down on the Roman fort of Durisdeer and the old drove road over the Well Path. The summit is unusual — an embedded rock beside a march wall and a bend in the fence, three features converging on a small patch of ground. The view stretches from the Solway across to the Tweedsmuir massif and back along the Lowther ridge to the radar dome.

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East Mount Lowther (631m) overlooks the lead-mining village of Wanlockhead — Scotland's highest — and is one of the most accessible Donalds in the country. A topograph viewpoint indicator on the summit names a panorama that reaches from the Galloway Hills to the Pentlands. The hill sits within the Lowther Hills group alongside its taller neighbour Lowther Hill with its prominent radar dome.

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A subsidiary top on the long undulating watershed between Talla and the Megget — Erie Hill is rarely climbed in its own right, but most parties tagging Hillshaw Head or Gathersnow pass over it. A small mossy cairn sits in a patch of bare ground.

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Ettrick Pen rises at the head of the Ettrick Water on the watershed with Annandale, the most southerly significant Donald in the Borders. A round cairn sits on a slope of peat-cropped grass, with the dark forestry plantations of Eskdalemuir reaching well up the southern flank.

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Gana Hill links Wedder Law to Lousie Wood Law on the Lowther watershed, a featureless grassy lump above the head of Daer Water. A small cairn sits at the corner of the boundary fence, with peat hags falling away to the east.

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Garelet Dod is one of the quiet middle hills of the Moffat group, a satellite summit lying between Hart Fell and the Tweedhope Sike. A "dod" in Borders Scots is a rounded hump, and the name fits — there is nothing dramatic about the top, just a swelling in the moor.

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Gathersnow Hill sits at the head of the Holms Water on the eastern arm of the Culter Fell range. True to its name, snow lingers in the corrie north of the cairn long after the surrounding hills have cleared. A weathered fence corner doubles as a windbreak.

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Glenrath Heights crowns the east arm of the Glenrath Horseshoe, joining the Dollar Law plateau to the Glensax ridge above Peebles. A small heap of stones beside the boundary fence is all that marks the watershed. Walkers tag it as part of the bigger Manor round.

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The actual high point of the Lowthers, slightly higher than its more celebrated twin Lowther Hill, Green Lowther carries Civil Aviation Authority radar masts and a cluster of low concrete shelters. The drive up the access road from Wanlockhead makes this the easiest 2400-foot top in Scotland.

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Greenside Law (643m) is a quiet whaleback in the Manor Hills west of St Mary's Loch, a tussocky dome above the headwaters of the Megget and Talla burns. The summit is unmarked — a patch of cropped grass among rougher tussock — and is most often reached as part of the long ridge sweep shared with Dollar Law and Black Law. Visitors come for the silence and the long views east over the upper Yarrow.

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Twin of White Coomb across the Moffat Hills, with the famous Devil's Beef Tub on its western flank — the steep amphitheatre that hid Border reivers and their stolen cattle.

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Herman Law (614m) is the eastern bookend of the Ettrick Hills, a quiet grassy top above the headwaters of the Tima Water. A fence junction marks the summit. The hill is rarely climbed by itself — most parties take it in on a long traverse from Bell Craig through Andrewhinney Hill, or from the Ettrick valley as part of the watershed round. The views east over the Yarrow toward St Mary's Loch are the highlight.

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Hillshaw Head joins the Culter Fell ridge to Coomb Dod and the Megget watershed on the long Tweedsmuir spine. A modest cairn ten metres east of the watershed fence marks the highest patch of grass on a wide rolling top.

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Hudderstone (626m) is an outlier of the Culter Fell group, a rounded grassy summit on the watershed between Coulter Water and the headwaters of the Medwin. The top is featureless bare ground amid cropped grass and offers wide views across the upper Clyde valley to the Pentlands. It is most often climbed as a satellite of Culter Fell rather than as a primary objective.

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Innerdownie (610m) is the easternmost Donald in the Ochil chain, a rolling heather dome above the Devon gorge near Rumbling Bridge. An embedded rock beside an old march wall marks the summit. The hill is the natural eastern continuation of the great Ochil watershed — beyond it the ground falls away to the Devon and the Cleish Hills appear across the valley. It is most often paired with Whitewisp Hill in a there-and-back round.

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King's Seat Hill is the second-highest of the Ochils, looking south from a tiny summit cairn down to the Hillfoots towns and the Forth estuary. Said to be where Robert the Bruce sat to survey his land — fanciful, but the panorama down to Stirling castle is striking.

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Kirriereoch sits at the northern end of the Awful Hand, separated from Merrick by a deep narrow col known as the Nieve of the Spit. Its summit is a worn whaleback of weathered granite — the second-highest of the Galloway Hills and unjustly overshadowed by its more famous neighbour.

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South of Loch Trool, Lamachan Hill anchors a wild moorland group facing the Merrick range across Glentrool. A solitary boulder sitting half-sunk in the grass marks its top, with a panoramic view down to Wigtown Bay and out over the inner Solway.

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Larg Hill is the northern of the Minnigaff group above Glen Trool, looking across to the granite of Curleywee and Lamachan. A small cairn sits in pale boulder-strewn ground at the edge of an old craggy step.

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Loch Fell crowns the small group of hills west of the Ettrick Pen plateau, looking down to the quiet hollow of Loch of the Lowes and Saint Mary's Loch. The top is barely a swelling on a broad grassy roof, marked by a wee pile of stones north of the watershed fence.

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Lochcraig Head stands directly above the dark waters of Loch Skeen, its craggy north-east face plunging straight down to the loch in one of the finest scenes of the Southern Uplands. From the small summit cairn the eye is drawn down to White Coomb and the cleft of the Grey Mare's Tail.

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Lousie Wood Law (619m) is a grassy whaleback in the upper Clyde valley between Crawfordjohn and Abington, a hill better known for its silence than its drama. A cairn caps the broad summit and the ground falls gently in all directions. The hill is part of the empty country between the Lowther Hills and the Tweedsmuirs — high pastoral ground criss-crossed by old drove roads from Carstairs to Sanquhar.

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Topped by the famous radar 'golf ball', this is the highest hill in the Lowther range and the easiest big hill in the Southern Uplands — there is a tarmac access road to the summit.

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Meaul is the northernmost Donald of the Rhinns of Kells ridge, just above Loch Doon and the start of the Doon valley. A weathered trig pillar caps a wide grassy summit, with a perfect view down to the loch and across to the wind turbines of Windy Standard.

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The southern bookend of the Rhinns of Kells, Meikle Millyea sits at the head of the Polharrow Burn looking out across the Galloway Dark Sky Park towards Cairnsmore of Fleet. A flat lichen-streaked summit slab gives the high point a slightly unfinished feel.

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The highest point in the Southern Uplands and the centrepiece of the Galloway hills. Often called 'the highest hill in the South of Scotland', which is technically true and entirely justified by the views.

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Middle Hill sits — as the name suggests — in the middle of the broad Tweedsmuir watershed between Pykestone and Drumelzier Law. There is no cairn, no fence corner, just an indistinguishable rise on a vast grassy roof. A purely cartographic summit, but a quiet companion on the longer round.

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Milldown lies on the southern Kells ridge between Meikle Millyea and Millfire, a low rocky outcrop on a broad plateau of close-cropped grass. A great place for hares — they bolt from underfoot in late summer when the bracken below is at its rankest.

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Millfore sits in the wild moorland heart of the Minnigaff range, west of Loch Dee. The summit is a low band of layered rock — almost a small tor — with views across to the Awful Hand and out over Cairnsmore of Fleet.

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Molls Cleuch Dod is the quiet linking top between Lochcraig Head and Firthybrig on the inner Moffat watershed. A modest cairn sits beside the old march wall that runs east into the headwaters of the Talla Water. It sees a fraction of the visitors that pass through, despite being entirely on the way.

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Moorbrock Hill rises east of the Cairnsmore of Carsphairn group, looking down on the Water of Ken and across to Windy Standard's wind turbines. A patch of bare peaty ground marks the highest spot on a long heathery whaleback.

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Mullwharchar is the lonely heart of Galloway — a hill of bare ice-scoured slabs at the centre of the Dungeon range, ringed by Loch Enoch, Loch Macaterick and Loch Doon. Once briefly considered as a nuclear waste repository in the 1980s, it remains as wild as anywhere in the Southern Uplands.

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Pykestone is the next summit along the Manor ridge north of Dollar Law, marked by a small cairn beside a weathered concrete trig pillar. Its name probably derives from the pike-shaped boundary stone nearby — a marker for the old shire boundary that still runs along the watershed.

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Queensberry is the tallest hill of the eastern Lowther group above Thornhill — the seat from which the Douglas Earls of Queensberry took their title. A handsome conical cairn caps the summit and the view sweeps from Tinto south to the Solway and east across Annandale.

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Scaw'd Law is a quiet eastern outlier of the Lowther group above the Daer reservoir. The name — 'bare law' in Scots — fits perfectly: a wind-bald summit of trampled bare ground beside a tumbledown drystone wall.

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The northernmost peak of the Awful Hand and the only Galloway Donald entirely in South Ayrshire. A pointed quartz rock by the summit cairn looks across to the Stinchar Valley and the wind farms of Carrick. Its name comes from Gaelic — the "willow place on the river" below.

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Stob Law is the southern outlier of the Glensax ridge above Peebles, a steep grassy cone rising from the floor of the Manor Valley. Despite the Gaelic-sounding name, the hill sits firmly in Border country between the Tweed and the Cademuir.

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Swatte Fell sits on the rim of the Devil's Beef Tub — the great glacial amphitheatre above the source of the River Annan. The unmarked top lies a few paces from a pair of ruined wall stubs and looks straight down a 250-metre drop into the Tub.

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Talla Cleuch Head sits on the long ridge running south from Broad Law above the dark waters of Talla Reservoir. The top is unmarked apart from a turn in the watershed fence, but the drop down Garelet Hill into the Talla glen is one of the more striking little corries in the Tweedsmuirs.

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Tarfessock is the middle finger of the Awful Hand, set between Shalloch on Minnoch to the north and Kirriereoch to the south. A neat cairn sits on a small granite outcrop at the top, with the immense glacial bowl of Loch Macaterick spread out to the east.

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Tarmangie Hill is the eastern of the Ochil Donalds, on the high ridge above Glen Devon. The top is unmarked but for a worn patch in the moss six metres from the watershed fence. Views east stretch over Glen Devon to the Lomond Hills.

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The most-walked hill in Lanarkshire and a brilliant first Donald for Central Belt walkers. Sits in splendid isolation overlooking the upper Clyde valley with a Bronze Age cairn on the summit.

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Uamh Bheag — 'the little cave' — is the high point of the Braes of Doune above Callander, a sprawling moorland top on the southern edge of the Trossachs. The summit lies near a junction of cairn and fence in the middle of a vast peat-hag plateau studded with wind turbines.

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Under Saddle Yoke rises sharply from Capplegill above the Moffat Water, the southern bookend of the long arête that runs north over Saddle Yoke proper to Hart Fell. The unmarked top sits at the edge of the spectacular Black Hope hanging valley.

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Wedder Law (the 'gelded ram's law') rises just south of Ballencleuch Law on the Lowther watershed above the Daer reservoir. An unmarked, treeless dome of pale grass with the radar masts of Lowther Hill prominent on the western skyline.

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The highest of the Moffat Hills, sitting above the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall and the hanging corrie holding Loch Skeen. A brilliant winter outing on a list usually thought of as gentle, with steep cornice-prone edges in cold weather.

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Whitehope Heights (637m) is a rolling top in the Tweedsmuir massif above the Devil's Beef Tub, looking down on the A701 watershed between the Tweed and Annan. A small cairn marks the highest point of a broad grassy crown that links Annanhead Hill and Great Hill in an obvious skyline. Few walkers visit for its own sake; most pass over on round trips taking in Hart Fell or Chalk Rig Edge.

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Whitehope Law (623m) sits deep in the eastern Moorfoots above the Heriot Water, a deep heather dome rising from the headwaters of the Gala. A small heap of stones beside the march fence marks the summit. The hill links to Bowbeat Hill along a broad watershed and sees few visitors outside the August grouse season — the high ground feels remote despite its proximity to Edinburgh.

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Wind Fell sits east of Loch Fell on the Ettrick watershed, its name justified — the top is fully exposed to anything blowing in from the west. A patch of mossy turf in place of a cairn, with a small windbreak built by passing shepherds.

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Windlestraw Law is the high point of the Moorfoot Hills — a great rolling stretch of moor between Innerleithen and the Edinburgh fringes. A fence-junction with a small cairn marks the top, set in a plain of bog cotton and short heather.

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Windy Gyle (619m) straddles the Anglo-Scottish border in the Cheviot Hills, a flat-topped grassy summit named for the relentless wind that scours it. A trig point sits beside the much older Bronze Age cairn of Russell's Cairn, marking both the watershed and the historic march between Northumberland and the Borders. The Pennine Way crosses the top — this is one of the windiest, most exposed sections of that long path.

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Windy Standard lives up to its name — a long moorland top above Carsphairn now ringed with wind turbines. Around the trig pillar the modern landscape of energy meets ancient peat moor, an oddly compelling combination.

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