Bishop Forest Hill

November 15, 2009

The day started at Mabie forest car park. No one else had turned up. Then my phone rang. Everyone else was at Ae forest. Chinese whispers had corrupted my message. It was too late to join them at Ae so I drove up to Glenkiln to have a go at Bishop Forest hill.

This hill was in a book of walks I have had for 15 years or so. I have tried getting up it a couple of times when the boys were younger but could not find a path through the unpleasant tussucks and marshy ground. Same again this time, so I skirted round to the east about half way up and came across a faint track which would have been my way down according to the book. It was easy enough to follow it up to the top. My attempts to find a way down where I had expected to come up were unsuccessful (very wet ground) so I came back up and followed the track down.

Despite this being a small hill the views were good.

Retrospective:

I parked near the statue of John the Baptist in air guitar pose, then followed the path over the Marglolly burn towards Cornlee farmhouse turning up to the hill just before the pink farm. The first section was difficult. I stepped on some old wood which proved to have been rendered frictionless by moss and drizzle, and fell flat on my back. This must have made me stronger (since it didn’t kill me), but did not make me happier.

I imagine I had chosen the wrong path since I had to climb over two walls, one with barbed wire to get out onto the hillside. This lacked any easy path and the waterlogged ground was hard going. I eventually contoured to my left and found a faint quad bike track that I was able to follow most of the way to the top.

 

 

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Cairnsmore of Carsphairn

November 8, 2009

This was a difficult walk because the errant border terrier Leo chose to do a runner and could not be found. As you will see from the photos, it was a beautiful day for walking.

The picture above is the Green Well of Scotland at the start of the walk and just beyond there we walked through a quagmire of mud in a field of cows. That was followed by a fording of the burn which though not in full flood was far from empty. Luckily another walker lent me his walking pole so I could stabilise myself on the slippy stones. Once I was away from livestock I let the dogs off their leads and both ran off into the bracken. Sweep came back when called and Leo disappeared from view. I hung about for about an hour then walked further up to see if he had rejoined the path later on. But no luck. Expeditions down to the burn through rather unpleasant wet and deep bracken was also to no avail. When the light started to fade I was forced to leave. I asked a local farmer to let us know if she saw him.

We went back that evening but could not get far in the dark. Next day Lynn went back and there was Leo following a walker off the hill. I had thought he was lost so that was a great relief.

 

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Forth Clyde Canal

October 31, 2009

A two day outing with a stop over and Halloween party in Kirkintilloch. Day one was reasonable weather but the next day was spoiled by constant rain. I had expected the scenery to be better on the second day, but was surprised to find the Glasgow section better. Perhaps the rain stopped me appreciating Sunday’s offerings.

Day 1: Bowling to Kirkintilloch. 16 miles

Day 2: Kirkintilloch to the Falkirk Wheel. 16 miles

Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain. It is rare that it rains so much and with such vigour that I get no photos. This was such a day. My waterproofing failed completely.

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Tinto

October 20, 2009

4.32 miles 2h 10m ascent 487m

Tinto doesn’t look much as you stand at the bottom. The path looks easy going but it does go on a bit. There is a massive cairn at the top but no cover anywhere. This proved rather uncomfortable when I wanted a pee and was visible from miles around.

I felt I was being intrepid as I made my way up (perhaps I mean fit) and felt pleased with myself until I met the guys with champion beer bellies laughing as they made their way.

The most exciting part came as I drove away at the end. Just in my visual field  in the mirror I saw a bird fall off the back of the car. Strange. Then 50 metres on another bird fell off. Stranger still.  When the last thing fell off the penny dropped. These birds were my hat and gloves that I had put on the roof of the car.

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Mabie Forest

October 18, 2009

7.2 miles, total ascent 274m      about 2.5 hours

This was the walk from Mabie down to Trostan, along to Lotus Hill and back up into Mabie. Nice weather, randy dogs, and hot drinks at the end. What more can you ask for?

 

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Clatteringshaws

October 4, 2009

A walk around the Clatteringshaws cycle path. It was sunny most of the way round but clouded over and started to rain when we stopped for lunch. At least we were treated to some rainbows.

13.7 miles     elevation 227m     time 4h 5m

Retrospective:

This was planned as a relatively easy walk, no climbing to speak of, since David was recovering from knee surgery I seem to remember. Nevertheless he seemed to be setting the pace. We parked at the Clatteringshaws visitor centre and headed east along the Queen’s way for a brief spell before joining a forestry track running northwest through Craigenbay. This leads to the SUW which carried us back to the Loch.

the north end of Clatteringshaws

The views here were excellent with the sunlight glinting on the Loch and the surrounding hills rejoicing in their best summer greens. The River Dee was dammed at Clatteringshaws in 1935 creating Clatteringshaws Loch which is much larger than its natural neighbours, Loch Dee and Trool. Beneath its water lies Craignell, the site of a battle, commemorated by Bruce’s Stone on Raploch Moss.

The SUW then follows Blackwater of Dee upstream for a couple miles until you reach the small bridge over it. After crossing the bridge there is a T junction. The SUW goes right towards Loch Dee and we headed left past Craigencallie House and down to the loch again. There is a small bridge over Darnaw Burn where we decided to stop for lunch, since it was somewhere to sit and it was there that we had our first drops of rain. At least we had a rainbow for dessert.

 

 

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Striding Arches

July 25, 2009

Three separate walks in June and July.

First walk 27th June was the shortest, to the arch on Colt hill. It’s quite a bumpy drive up from Moniaive to the the parking spot at Cairnhead and I arrived to find my water bag had leaked into the rucksack. So I started with a wet rucksack, but perhaps that helped to keep my back cool. The slowly climbing path is no problem and it is a well maintained forestry road really. Views down the valley are pleasant and there are some good looking albeit small waterfalls on the way up.

The path up Colt hill is quite steep and not much used, I would think, given the length of the grass. It had been raining in the days before I walked and the wet grass managed to soak me from the knees down. Unfortunately it became a bit misty when I got to the arch so I could not see the other arches clearly.

My next visit was on July 11th, this time to visit Benbrack Arch. The way is the same except at the top of the path I turn left which is signposted to the southern upland way. Turning right takes you to Colt Hill. I met a group of about twenty folk coming back from the arch. This section is on the southern upland way but I have to say that the marker posts are not always easily seen and the ground was quite wet in places. The dogs were certainly wet by this time. There comes a time on this walk where the Benbrack arch comes into view and looks to be absolutely miles away, though in reality it is only 15 minutes away. This optical illusion put off Lynn on the next walk.

At Benbrack I had decided to make my way down in a circular route rather than retrace my steps. My aim was to make for little Dibbin Hill then to little Dibbin Lane. At that time I didn’t realise a lane was an unfordable stream. After about 20 minutes though I turned back having got to a fence I could easily have climbed but would have had some trouble getting the dogs over. By that time it was clear that the going that way was pretty rough. There is a fell race that takes the route however, so I can’t help thinking that there is an easier way and I was missing it.

I walked in shorts this day and frowned at various people I saw walking in full gear including gaiters. Well my sunburn the next day showed they had chosen the right gear.

Visit number 3 was 25th July with a leisurely walk up the same route to Cairn Hill and back. This time I remembered to get some pictures of the Byre Arch.

That just leaves the Bail Hill arch to visit.

 

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Glenmidge

July 19, 2009

Strange that such a pleasant walk exists so close to home. Though I’m not sure I could find where we went on a map.

From memory the route goes from Glenmidge, down towards Hallidayhill but taking a right fork up the side of the hill then looping round past the ruins of Upper Hallidayhill. The path then heads down Lag Hill, through a forest and back out onto meadows with the remains of Lagg Tower on our right.

We then turned left along the road for about a kilometre and followed a path to a farm at Dempsterton. Here we went off piste and tramped across a field then climbed an old rusty gate to follow a faint path between a wall and a burn. this eventually led us to a minor road where we turned left.

Here my memory and the map differ. I’m pretty sure we turned left off the road and walked past Drum farm, but I may just be recalling the sign for the farm. This turned into a concrete road back to Lagg Cottage, where we went right. The final section was a round of Kirkbride Hill, where we had to negotiate our way around a cow blocking the path.

I think that was the route.

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