For some the purity of a bouldering line and the clean tight power of a short piece of rock motivates more than the sweaty walk-ins, hot belays and meandering thoughts of a mountain route... in this spirit, in the cool Font-like dappled shade of Dunkeld woods, Mike Lee worked out the high voltage positions of his project to give Electric Feel Font 7b+. It is an isolated problem, but maybe all the more focused and classic because of this. It's an attractive scooped wall with lightning bolt features just down the hill rightwards from Marjorie Razorblade buttress at NO 020 438. Well done to Mike for climbing such a tough line in the searing heat we've had the last few days - I can vouch that this is a class modern addition and probably the best boulder problem in the area.
BROAD LAW The rolling hills east of the modern motorway of the M74 hold much more character and history than they appear from the west, where they are now flanked by forestries of spruce and wind-farms. In medieval times this was a Scottish royal hunting ground – the ‘Ettrick Forest’. Further east towards the Tweed valley, there are echoes of a deeper Scottish history in the border towns of Hawick, Selkirk, Galashiels, Peebles and Kelso, all on the banks of the historic River Tweed and famous for their medieval forts and abbeys. Looking west from Broad Law to the monoculture forestry and wind-farms of 21st C Scotland This range of hills, along with the northern flanks of the Cheviot hills, marks the geographical transition to the once-contested border with Northumberland, with its high pass over Carter Bar on the A68. The more useful sense of boundaries are suggested not by the roads but by the watersheds: to the north the waters drain into the River Cly...