Start : Main Rd (B914), Steelend, Dunfermline (KY12 9LX), Scotland. Grid ref. NT 038 922
(S/E) A green Scotways sign indicates the start of the path at the east end of Steelend. The path can also be reached from the grassy park at the west end. Whichever approach is used the first landmark is a marker post that marks the route through Saline Glen.
(1) Take the unmarked path heading in a Westerly direction for Killernie (to the left) for around 750 m.
(2) Close to the ruin of Killernie Castle the path turns right (North) through a gate onto a more obvious track. The farm and houses at Kilernie are the next landmarks and at this point the path becomes a road.
Keep straight on through a gate (don’t go left to the public road) and follow the edge of the field alongside a ditch. The path now skirts the western side of the hill with a plethora of gates and stiles until it reaches the access road coming in from Balgonar.
(3) At this point there is a quarry area to the right where the route up the northwest shoulder starts from. Keeping straight on though, the track is now surfaced for a while but beyond Sheardrum it becomes muddy where cattle have churned it up.
(4) Pass a cattle feeding area close to where the track up the northern side of the hill starts from. However, keep straight on through a gate into the trees where there is a ruin to the left. After the trees it is probably easiest to walk on the old railway embankment to the right.
(5) When you reach a section of the railway line with some stone work (presumably the remains of a bridge) the core path turns right up the hillside. Pick a way up the hill keeping fairly close to the fence to the left. At the fence junction in the southeast corner of the field go through the gate and left onto the dirt track to walk round Knock Hill.
At the next fence turn right off the track and onto the pathless hillside to go directly up Knock Hill. Higher up the ground becomes easier but the gradient starts to steepen.
(6) The summit, crowned with communications masts and a trig point, is soon reached. (A) Descend in a right (South-West) direction directly down the grassy hillside. The ground becomes rougher and wetter at the coll between the hills. Cross the fence and start to go up the other side where the ground becomes drier and grassier. Before reaching the summit of Easter Cairn a barbed wire fence needs to be crossed.
(7) Easter Cairn is the site of an old hill fort and at 355m is the 6th highest hill in Fife. After this summit continue onwards between the wall and Scots pine plantation to reach the summit of Saline Hill (359m) at Mid Cairn.
(8) To descend it is easier to continue to the Western Cairn area and turn South alongside a fence. Although a direct descent from Mid Cairn is possible the ground is rather steep and clad with gorse.
The fence will turn left so that it is running in an East/West direction. Use the high deer gate at NT 040 929 to access the next field. Cross this field, with newly planted trees, in a roughly south direction to reach another deer gate into the final field. Cross this grass field to reach a stile on its southern side at NT 039 923 giving access back onto the Killernie to Steelend path. (S/E)
