We call them Sunday Adventures, and our latest took us up Bizzyberry Hill, just outside Biggar in South Lanarkshire—and when I say “outside”, I mean about a hundred yards beyond the town on the Edinburgh Road.
Bizzyberry Hill isn’t a difficult climb. At just over 1,000 feet, it’s short and manageable, but what it lacks in height it makes up for in views. From the top, Biggar sits neatly below you, and the surrounding hills stretch out in every direction—Coulter Fell and Tinto nearby, the Pentlands to the east, and on a clear day you can even make out the distinctive shape of the Cobbler to the west.
If you’re planning a visit, a good place to start is across the road from the weathered sign pointing up towards the hill. The path takes you past a cluster of chicken coops, then winds through a patch of trees before opening out onto the hillside. From there, it’s simply a matter of following the well-placed waymarkers up to the top.
There’s more here than just the view, though. Bizzyberry Hill was once the site of two Iron Age hill forts, and there’s also Wallace’s Well tucked away somewhere on the slopes—though it’s not the easiest thing to find. Harder still to locate is the rumoured secret tunnel said to run from the hill down into Biggar. No one has ever found it, which, of course, is exactly what you’d expect from a secret.
All in, it’s a walk that takes about an hour up and down at an easy pace, making it ideal for a quick outing rather than a full-day hike. It’s also the kind of place that lends itself to stopping for a while, so next time we visit, we’ll probably bring a picnic and make more of it.
