The Fruin

1 March 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - The Fruin, 361m/1,184', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 56, NS 276872

The cold spell had continued and the ground remained frozen. So I reckoned that it was time for another hill that I had put off climbing until the underfoot conditions were favourable. The Fruin is a Marilyn situated north of the road between Helensburgh and Garelochead. From the map, it looked like the best way of tackling it would be from the highest point of the old Glen Fruin road. That way, over half the ascent height would be gained before leaving the car. Here is a view of the hill from further down Glen Fruin, on the new road.

The first part of the walk looked as though it would be very wet in summer and the underfoot terrain is very rough all of the way. By following a fence that I reached about 1/2 mile from the start, I was able to avoid the worst of the tussocks. The summit is at the highest point on the left hand bump in the next picture.

The excellence of the views more than made up for the underfoot conditions. This is looking north to Beinn Chaorach in the Luss hills taken from about the half way point in the walk to the summit.....

And this is the view back to the Cowal hills across the Gareloch taken from slightly further on..... 

There were two small cairns at the top and I reckoned that the most northerly was the higher point. There were good views in all directions. As well as the Cowal hills in the west I could see north to Beinn a'Mhanach and Beinn Chaorach in the Luss hills.....

east to the Campsie's.....

and south down the Clyde estuary with Inverkip power station chimney clearly visible.....

It had definitely been worth saving this hill for a crisp winter's day. 4 miles, 165m of ascent, 3 hours and 50 minutes.