It was a beautiful spring day on Wednesday 27th February when the Biggar Ramblers met on the Lower Green in West Linton to walk to West Water Reservoir. On the way up Medwyn Road we stopped to look at a plaque in a wall which says "This dyke was the work of James Fleming, West Linton, 1948." This was of particular interest to them as the daughter of James Fleming was until very recently a member of the Biggar Ramblers.
They walked past West Linton Golf Club on what was an old drove road and admired the pigs and Hebridean sheep which can be seen in the fields to the right. They turned left over the cattle grid and got a really good view of hills all around but Medick hill dominated the view. Shortly they arrived at West Water Reservoir. The water level was quite low. In the mid 1990s seasonal drops in the water level revealed a 4,000 year old Bronze Age burial ground. Finds from the graves included food vessels,flint tools, a bronze awl and a necklace made of lead beads -the earliest evidence for the use of metallic lead in Britain. The stone burial costs were moved to a site on the edge of West Linton Golf Club. Many flocks of geese rest here overnight flying over West Linton in huge numbers like commuters. Today only a few geese could be seen on the far shore.
The Ramblers returned to the golf club along part of an old Roman road stopping to read the story boards at the present site of the costs.
They then enjoyed a lunch of soup and scones in the golf club where they were made very welcome after which they continued back to West Linton and the cars, thankfully all downhill.
Walk Leader: Lesley Glidden
