Tuesday 29 September 2015

Hill of Tillymorgan and Hill of Foudland

28 September 2015

Participants: Just me
Where: Hill of Tillymorgan, 381m/1,249', Sub-2k Marilyn, Map 29, NJ 652348 and Hill of Foudland, 467m/1,531', Sub-2k Marilyn, Map 29, NJ 603332
 
I made the short drive from Alford to the Glens of Foudland to climb these two Marilyns. It wasn't quite as sunny as the previous day but still very clear and if anything a bit warmer. I decided to climb Hill of Tillymorgan first so drove to the farm at Kirkton of Culsalmond. There was no obvious place to park and no one about to ask so I drove back down the hill to the A920 where there was a convenient lay by. It only added a few hundred yards to the walk. The hill was signposted, a track which went through a number of fields before entering some woodland.....
 
 
The path sort of disappeared after leaving the woodland but the way was obvious- through some old slate quarries which littered the top of the hill. Apparently, quarrying went on into the latter part of the 19th century. It made for a rather industrial looking landscape.....


A barbed wire fence separated the quarrying area from the more grassy top of the hill and the mound containing the trig. It overlooked the Glen's of Foudland wind farm......


but a better view was due north to another of the Aberdeenshire Marilyns, Knock Hill.....


There was also a view south to Bennachie.....


I returned the same way and moved the car a couple of miles back along the road to the wee village of Colpy where I parked. It was then a walk of about a mile along a tarmacked road to the farm of Jericho and then a good track up through some woodland to the start of the track to the masts which were almost at the top of Hill of Foudland. Here are some photos of the approach.....





The masts are a local landmark and are quite impressive close up........



The masts could have been the highest point but apparently not; it is the trig point a further half mile across the moor.....

A less impressive summit this one, the hill in the middle distance is Tap o'Noth.......


There was a good view of the Hill of Tillymorgan on the way down.....


It took me about an hour and a half to climb Hill of Tillymorgan and a shade under 3 hours to climb Hill of Foudland. Then it was back down the road. It had been another interesting trip to Aberdeenshire. 

1 comment:

blueskyscotland said...

That's a new area for me. One of my friends suggested going there on a camping trip a couple of weeks ago and I had to google it to find out where it was. Home town of singer Emeli Sande' apparently.