Common Hill

24 November.

Participants - Me and Ben
Where - Common Hill, 488m/1,600', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 71, NS 792308.

The best of the weather was in the west so I headed down the motorway for a walk with Ben on Common Hill, a Marilyn outside Douglas. I drove as far as the houses at Douglas West where there was lots of parking. This is Common Hill from the Douglas West road.....

For some reason, each of the tops of this hill has a different name- Common Hill, Broomerside Hill, Henry's Hill, Hagshaw Hill, etc. It contains one of Scotland's earliest wind farms which was extended a few years ago.....

One advantage of the wind farm is the track that meanders all the way to the summit at a gentle gradient. Ben barked at the turbines when he first spotted them but soon stopped when he saw that I was not bothering about them. Here he is approaching the first of the turbines.....

All of the snow of the previous week had melted. I could see last week's hill, Dungavel Hill, just to the left of the trig in this photo, with the Culter hills beyond......

Tinto was prominent.....

as was Cairn Table to the west.....

There was also a good view of Tinto from the track on the way back.....

It was a walk of about 4 miles with about 240m of ascent, a fairly gentle leg-stretcher and just right for a young dog. Hope that this good weather continues!

Dungavel Hill- first taste of winter

15 November.

Participants - Me and Ben
Where - Dungavel Hill, 510m/1,673'. Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 71/72, NS 942305

The weather was great when I got up and looked like staying that way for a few hours before the next rain came in from the west. So there was just time to do a Marilyn! I got a surprise though as I drove south- everything south of Lanark was covered in snow and it had obviously snowed down to road level before mostly melting low down. I wondered how Ben would take to the snow but I needn't have worried, he loved it. This is Dungavel Hill from Newton; we went up by the long west ridge having found a parking spot beside a cattle grid on a narrow road that goes to Roberton.....

Although grass and heather poked up through the snow,  in places it was surprisingly deep, more than 6 inches. Not thinking ahead as usual, I hadn't bothered to bring my gaiters so my feet were soon wet. Ben sort of bounced uphill through the snow and we made good progress.  The trig had seen better days.....

Fortunately there was a fence at the top so I was able to tie Ben's lead to it so that I could get some photographs. This is Ben at the top with the Culter hills in the background.....

another view of the Culter hills from slightly down the east ridge.....

and looking up the Clyde valley towards Biggar with the Pentlands in the distance.....

Tinto is very close to the north but there was a cap of cloud on it all day....

The journey down had been a bit slow as there were roadworks in Lanark so I went back by the motorway. This is a last view of the hill from the A73.....

Moncreiffe Hill, Ben's first Marilyn

10 November 2010.

Participants - Me, Steven and Ben
Where - Moncreiffe Hill, 223m/732', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 58, NO 136199 

The beginning of November until the shortest day is my least favourite time of year; daylight hours getting shorter, grey skies, lots of rain- depressing really. But occasionally a good weather day comes along and today was one. Ben is now 4 months old and has lots of energy; he has been going for walks in the country parks near to home and I reckoned that it was now time to take him on his first hill walk! I chose Moncreiffe Hill just to the south of Perth. Although it is a Marilyn, it is more like a woodland walk than a true hill- it has wide tracks and gentle inclines so is just right for a wee dog. And it's summit is an excellent viewpoint for human companions. This is a view that I took of it from near to Bridge of Earn on a previous visit.....

We parked at the car park on the south side of the hill; here are Steven and Ben setting off on the walk.....

 Unfortunately, there has been a bit of timber harvesting recently and the tracks were well churned up. There were also some new tracks going in. The woodland was a mix of conifers and deciduous trees and although the best of the autumn foliage was past, I was pleased to see that there was still some colour left on what leaves remained.....

A steeper uphill section on a new track led to the summit- Moredun Top- which is clear of the trees. Apparently it contains the remains of an Iron Age fort; logical for one to be built here I suppose as the top looks down on all of the low ground for miles around. Here I am with Ben at the cairn with Stuc a'Chroin and Ben Vorlich in the far distance. All of the higher hills had some snow on them.....

And here is Ben topping out on his first Marilyn (Perth in the background). Isn't he a good dog sitting patiently to have his photo taken? Hmmm, not quite, what you can't see is Steven behind the cairn holding him in position.....

Moredun Top is a great viewpoint for such a small hill, particularly on a day like this. This is looking to the Lomond Hills in Fife.....

down the Tay towards the estuary; Norman's Law is the hill in the distance.....

and across the Friarton bridge to Perth with the Glenshee hills distant.....

We carried on following the track in an easterly direction and in places the mud got worse. Even so, it was a nice walk through the forest and it took us just over two hours....

Ben slept in the car on the way home, but was full of life again as soon as he got out.

Wisp Hill

24 October.

Participants - Just me
Where - Wisp Hill, 595m/1953', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 79, NY 386993.

I had been at a weekend of MBA meetings including the AGM at Greenhead in Northern England and just had enough time for a short walk on the way home. There are a small group of Marilyn's just north of Langholm that I had never visited so I made a small diversion up the A7 to tackle one of these. Wisp Hill was the closest to the road so that was the one that I chose. This is a view of Whin Fell, its southern top, from the A7.....

The eastern slopes were steep sided so I drove as far as Mosspaul hotel before parking so that I could tackle the more gentle north-east slopes. Wisp Hill turned out to be a grassy hill and it was a bit tussocky in places but generally the going was OK. I paused on the way up to take this picture of the road with the hotel and the hills in the direction of Hawick.....

The trig soon came into view.....

It had been frosty the previous night and the atmosphere was very clear so the views were excellent. I could see some of the Lake District hills on the southern horizon.....

and to the north I could make out the distinctive shape of the Eildon hills (right of trig) with Rubers Law, another hill that is on my list to climb in this area, further right.....

Not having been in this area before, I was a bit puzzled as to what the highest land across the valley was but eventually decided that it was Caldcleuch Head, which I climbed from the Hawick side many years ago.....

There was another Marilyn, Pikethaw Hill, just to the south of Wisp Hill but it involved a fair bit of descent and reascent and the sun was already starting to get quite low in the sky so no time to do it today. There is a third Marilyn, Ellson Fell across the A7 but it was surrounded by trees and looked as if it might take a bit of planning to find a way up. So there is plenty to do here and it is a nice area so I must make the effort to come back sometime. Anyway, I had snatched a new Marilyn for my list from an otherwise busy weekend so I was content!

Beinn Dearg (Menteith Hills)

19 October 2010. The forecast was good but the sky was a bit cloudy- typical late autumn day really. I was only looking for a short walk and the Menteith hills fitted the bill exactly. I parked the car in an unofficial lay by on the A81 Callander to Aberfoyle road immediately opposite the start of a track that led to the radio masts on Ben Gullipen. The first part of the walk was through a forest and the track then entered land belonging to Gartchonzie estate. A large sign gave notice that "Pedigree Highlanders" were grazing; although there was lots of evidence that they had been on the track there was no sign of the beasts today. This is on the approach track looking towards Ben Gullipen.....

Ben Gullipen was an excellent viewpoint in its own right. Ben Ledi was prominent to the north across Loch Vennachar (the loch to its right is Loch Lubnaig).....

If I wasn't collecting and photo-recording Marilyn's then I doubt that I would have continued beyond the masts. The highest point of this small group of hills- Beinn Dearg, 427m/1,400'- was less than 1/2 mile away and would probably have only taken about 15 minutes if the underfoot conditions were good. However, they were far from it; the heather was some of the roughest that I have encountered in this area and there was also tussocky grass and some boggy areas. I decided to drop down a bit to the north and traverse across the hillside close to Lochan Bailoch and thus avoid the worst of the heather; this is Beinn Dearg from Ben Gullipen with Lochan Bailoch in the foreground.....

On the way back, I spotted a rough track on the south side of the ridge and followed it as far as a point directly below the masts and climbed back up from there to join the outward track. It was a marginally better route. Needless to say, this does not seem to be a well visited summit and there was no cairn. The highest point was at the junction of some fences. I took this picture looking west to Ben Venue and Ben Lomond.....

The view down Loch Vennachar into the Trossachs was also good from here......

and how about this for some highland scenery only about 20 odd miles from Glasgow? It is Ben Ledi across Lochan Bailoch.....

The walk was about 4 miles altogether with about 300m of ascent and it took me 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Beinn Dorain

11 October 2010. One of those cloudy high pressure areas had moved in- typical for this time of year really. The forecasts were promising that it would be clear in the west with excellent visibility so I headed for Bridge of Orchy. It was dull when I left home, sunny at Strathblane, cloudy again driving up the side of Loch Lomond with the hills covered in clag, and as it hadn't improved by the time that I reached Crianlarich I was beginning to think that I had made a wasted journey. But driving up the hill out of Tyndrum things suddenly looked promising.....

I parked in the car park at the Bridge of Orchy hotel and by the time that I had got my gear on, it was clear that it was going to be a corker of a day. Could there even be a cloud inversion, I wondered? October is one of the best months in the year for them. The path into the Beinn an Dothaidh/ Beinn Dorain corrie had improved greatly since I had last been here, although where it started to steepen it remained the bog fest that I remembered. But I was soon past that bit and dry underfoot conditions returned when I reached the steepest section. This is looking back towards Bridge of Orchy from not far after the start.....

I knew that the views were going to be good but I was unprepared for what I saw when I reached the col; whereas the hills to the west were hazy, cloud filled the glens to the east with only the tops poking out above the sea of white. Beinn Heasgarnich is the long ridge in the centre of the pic.....

It was really warm in the sunshine and I sat about at the col for a while. Eventually I dragged myself away and continued upwards, this is another view of the hills to the east with Beinn Mhanach and its western top the pudding shaped hill on the left......

It was a bit hazy still to the west but as I got higher it was obvious that the inversion conditions were persisting in the glens to the south; this is looking to the Crianlarich hills from close to the summit.....

The final approach to the summit.....

Along with several other people, I spent about an hour on top, lazing about in the sun and looking at the views. This sort of day is why I climb hills!

The view to Ben More and Stobinian (slight telephoto).....

over the Corbett of Beinn Odhair to the Crianlarich hills (I like this one; it gives a good impression of height).....

and to the Ben Lui group.....

 Eventually I decided that I had better make my way back down. The cloud in the glens had more or less lifted and the views were back to being just excellent! This is looking east to Beinn a'Chreachain and Beinn Mhanach from the descent.....

along Loch Lyon with the Ben Lawers group in the far distance.....

over a wee lochan on the ridge to the neighbouring Munro of Beinn an Dothaidh.....

The view east from the col when I got back to it was good but I think that I preferred it with the cloud in the glens.....

It was just a case of retracing my steps back down the path to the car. It was more like June than October, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I paused a few times for more photographs- this is looking back up the path to the corrie.....

and this is a view of the Etive hills to the west of Bridge of Orchy, Stob Ghabhar prominent.....

The walk took 5 hours and 20 minutes, it was about 6 miles and involved almost 900m of ascent.  I stopped at the same viewpoint on the way back and took this final shot of Beinn Dorain for the day.....