Hare Cairn and the Reekie Linn

19 April 2013

Participants - Just Neil
Where - Hare Cairn, 516m/1,693', Sub-2k Marilyn, Map 44, NO 242623

There are a number of Grahams and sub-2k's to the north of Alyth. I have climbed most of them over the past few years and it is an area that I never tire of. Hare Cairn still remained to be done, I had left it because it is another of these hills that is surrounded by trees and looked as though it might be quite difficult to access. However like a number of these type of hills that I have climbed recently, it turned out that there was no problem; in fact, I was only in amongst trees for about 10 minutes. This is the view of it that I took from the other side of the Backwater Reservoir, you can just make out the treeless top above the forest.....

I parked the car at the Backwater Dam. There was a big sign in the car park so I went over to have a look. It was from a power company giving notice that they planned to build a wind farm of 18 turbines on the slopes of Creigh Hill on the east side of the Reservoir. In my view, it will completely spoil the area. OK, the reservoir is man made- Scottish Water owned- and there is a lot of commercial forestry around it but the banks are well landscaped and it really looks like a natural part of the environment.  Looking at the map of the proposed wind farm site the turbines will crowd in around the surrounding hillside and the views will be destroyed.

For now though it was a lovely walk along the water board road on the west side of the reservoir with the snow capped Glendoll hills of Mayar and Driesh beyond.....

Also in view was the forest that surrounds Hare Hill, the summit is up there somewhere.....

About two miles along the reservoir the tarred road was replaced by a grassy track and not long after, I came to a sign indicating a path to Glen Damff. It pointed to a gate at the edge of the forest. I went through the gate to find this grassy break in the trees.....

and after about 10 minutes arrived at another gate leading out onto open hillside.....

I simply followed the edge of the forest uphill by the side of a deer fence. Unfortunately, that fence had to be crossed higher up which was the main reason why Ben was not with me today. From the fence it was only a short stroll to the trig and a view back down to the reservoir.....

Driesh was prominent to the north.....

and Cat Law to the east.....

It was the first day this year that I could really say was warm. There was a wee bit of a breeze on top so I retraced my steps to the fence and sat in the shelter of an old wall to drink my chocolate and eat a banana. I don't like big lunches when I'm out walking! This was the view that I looked at as I sat at the wall- Mount Blair and Crock.....

There was no alternative route back to the car. So it was back down to the forest.....

and I thought that I had better take a photo of Creigh Hill across the Reservoir before it is spoilt by turbines....
.

There has been a fair bit of rain recently and the warmer weather meant that a lot of the snow that was on the hills had melted. The rivers were bound to be full; a good time to visit the Reekie Linn waterfall.  This is formed by the River Isla where it flows through a gorge and it was on my route home. Normally the waterfall is formed by two leaps of 6 and 12 metres but when the river is in spate it turns into a single 18 metres fall. And it was certainly in spate today.....

 

Spectacular!