Black Law

Tucked within the rolling expanse of the Manor Hills, this substantial Donald offers a classic Southern Upland experience. The rounded, peaty summit provides a sense of immense scale and solitude, looking across the deep valley of the Megget Water toward the towering, mast-topped plateau of neighbouring Broad Law.

• •The name combines the Scots 'Law', referring to a rounded hill, with 'Black', signifying the dark heather and peat hags that characterise its upper reaches.
• •It is typically climbed as part of a high-level horseshoe from the Megget Stone, a route that traverses the head of the Talla and Megget valleys.
• •The summit offers a commanding view over the Talla Reservoir, a Victorian engineering feat that supplies water to Edinburgh via a thirty-mile-long aqueduct.
• •As a Donald, it belongs to a list of Lowland hills over 2,000 feet compiled by Percy Donald, who famously preferred these rolling tops to the steeper Highlands.
• •The 'Black' in its name is less a poetic description and more a practical warning about the state of your gaiters after crossing the summit peat hags.