Classical scholar, I go up into hilltops distractedly (11)
I believe the answer is:
philologist
'classical scholar' is the definition.
(a philologist studies the history of languages)
'i go up into hilltops distractedly' is the wordplay.
'up' says the letters should be written backwards (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'into' is an insertion indicator.
'distractedly' is an anagram indicator.
'i'+'go'='igo'
'igo' written backwards gives 'ogi'.
'hilltops' is an anagram of 'philolst'.
'ogi' put within 'philolst' is 'PHILOLOGIST'.
(Other definitions for philologist that I've seen before include "Studier of languages" , "Expert in the structure and development of languages" .)