Lendrick Hill

21 April 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - Lendrick Hill, 456m/1,496', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 58, NO 019036

I was off to another MBA meeting and as it was a pleasant day, I left early so that I could get a walk. Lendrick Hill is one of two Marilyns in the Ochils on the east side of the Glendevon to Dunning road. This is the view of it from near Crook of Devon.....

Much of the hill is covered in conifers but after about 1/2 mile on the track I came across a cairn which indicated that the route was up a firebreak and this was also marked at intervals by "Walkers welcome" signs. The cairn and signs were new from my last visit here a couple of years ago. Out of the trees, there was a bitter wind blowing so I didn't linger very long at the cairn which is on top of a small mound and about 50 yards north of the trig. Best of the views was to Loch Leven and the Lomond hills.....

and there was also a good view of the wind turbines on Steele's Knowe, another Marilyn on the other side of the Dunning road. The hills beyond seemed to have a fresh dusting of snow so maybe winter is not over yet.....

On the way back to the car, there was a good view of Innerdownie and Whitewisp hills.....

This was little more than a stroll, using the marked firebreak to get up meant that the total distance was less than 2 miles, there was about 250m of ascent and the whole walk only took me about 1 hour and twenty minutes.

Creag Dhubh (Glen Spean)

16 April 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - Creag Dhubh, 658m/2,160', Graham, Map 34, NN 322824

I found a narrow road off Glen Spean that led to Cille Choirill church and burial ground where there was a large car park. Apparently the church was built in the 15th century and named after St Cairell, an Irish monk from Iona. Here is the church with Creag Dhubh behind it.....

The area was obviously much more populated in years gone by; there were a number of old shielings at the foot of the hill...

My route was more or less straight up until I reached the west ridge which I followed to the top. Creag Dhubh (dark cliff) sits opposite the Easains- unfortunately, the sun was shining from that direction so I didn't get any photos of them. But there were views to east and west- east were the Munros of Beinn Tealach and Beinn a'Chaorainn.....

and west the Grey Corries and the Aonachs.....

While I was plodding up I heard the distinctive call of my favourite hill bird, the Golden Plover, the first of the year. Summer must definitely be on the way.

The stats for this hill, a new one for me, were a walk of 4 miles, 460m of ascent and I was out for just under 3 hours.

Beinn Chlaonleud

15 April 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - Beinn Chlaonleud, 479m/1,572', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 49 NM 748543

 My short visit to Mull was over and I was heading for Roybridge for an MBA meeting. So the day started with another ferry journey, this time the short hop across the Sound of Mull from Fishnish to Lochaline. The first picture is the ferry Loch Fyne at Fishnish pier and the second is the ferry at Lochaline.

Beinn Chlaonleud is an easy climb from the Lochaline to Strontian road. It lies to the west of Gleann Geal and has a high start point- even better as I was a bit tired from my exertions in Mull. Parking can be a problem on single track roads but I found a big parking area at the entrance to a forest immediately east of the summit. This is a view of the hill from further up the glen.....

It wasn't particularly steep and the underfoot conditions were good for the most part and I was at the cairn in about 50 minutes. This is the view looking north to the hills of Ardgour with the pointed peak of Sgurr Dhomhnuill prominent and Garbh Bheinn on the right.....

And this is the view back to Mull.....

So an easy day, it took less than 2 hours in total and was only 2 miles with 310m of ascent. But another new Marilyn to go on my list.

Dun da Ghaoithe

13 April 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - Dun da Ghaoithe, 766m/2,512', Corbett, Map 49, NM 672362

 It was a bit cooler today and not so hazy so perfect for doing this Corbett. Dun da Ghaoithe (fort of two winds) is the hill that is prominent in views from Oban and from the ferry.

I drove back to Craignure and took the minor road to Upper Achnacroish, where there is a car park. This is a long and fairly gentle route to the hill and had the advantage of a track for the first two miles, as far as the second of two radio masts at around 540m.

I got my first view of the two tops of Dun da Ghaoithe when I reached the first mast.....

together with a view down the Sound of Mull towards Ardnamurchan and the outer Isles.....

The going was excellent over mainly short cropped grass.....

The ridge became more defined and narrowed as I approached the first top (754m).....

This top has the trig although it is 12m lower than the west top, which is about 1/2 mile away.....

There wasn't too much descent and reascent to the main top. The best of the view from here was towards Ben More with Beinn Talaidh in front of it.....

On a previous visit I had climbed the hill directly from the main road west of the ferry terminal and descended by the track but I remember these slopes as being very rough and I noticed that there is now the added complication of forestry plantings on that side of the hill. So I returned the way that I came; this made a trip of about 8 miles with around 740m of ascent. It took me just under 6 hours.

Finally, two other views of the hill, firstly from Lochaline on the opposite side of the Sound of Mull and secondly a sunset shot that I took from Oban 3 nights before.

'S Airde Beinn

12 April 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - 'S Airde Beinn, 295m/968', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 47, NM 471537

 After the effort of Beinn Talaidh, I was looking for a short easy day, and, if possible, a Marilyn that was new for me. 'S Airde Beinn seemed to be an unusual hill so I drove down to Tobermory and took the B8073 road that goes to Dervaig. There was good parking space at the end of the forest on the west side of Loch Peallach; the path to the hill started at the side of a derilict cotage. This is the first view of the hill.....

'S Airde Beinn is an unusual hill because it is a volcanic plug which contains a "crater"- a glacial depression filled with water. So on reaching the top of the slope in the picture above, instead of a plateau I found that there was a deep depression containing a loch. The first picture below shows the view of the loch looking north and the second picture the view looking south.

The SNH website provides some fascinating information. "S'Airde Beinn represents the remnants of what was once the vent or central core of a volcano. This volcano was erupting lava during the Tertiary geological period around 60 million years ago, when Mull was a major volcanic centre. Molten rock progressively built up in a reservoir and then fed the erupting volcano. The erupting lava cooled rapidly on contact with the atmosphere forming a very fine grained basalt. At some stage, volcanic activity ceased and the molten rock remaining in the feeder pipe was trapped and therefore unable to reach the surface. It then cooled slowly in the chamber to form a course grained dolerite plug.

"Differential erosion of the ancient volcanic environment during the last ice age has resulted in the more resistant plug forming a positive topographic feature. This represents the largest example of a Tertiary volcanic plug in western Scotland."

The summit cairn was at the north end of the "crater rim"; unfortunately it was a hazy day so the distant views were not very extensive. But an interesting and unusual hill and it gave me the short day I was looking for- 2 miles, 190m of ascent taking just under 2 hours.

Beinn Talaidh

11 April 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - Beinn Talaidh, 761m/2,499', Graham, Map 49, NM 625347

Beinn Talaidh (hill of the view) used to be the smallest Corbett but after resurveying it became one of the highest Grahams. Whatever, it is a fine hill well worth climbing. This is a view from near Salen...

I caught the 9.50 ferry from Oban to Craignure. I am a real fan of the CalMac ferries- here is the ferry, the Isle of Mull leaving Craignure on its return trip.....

But for me it was a short drive down the Bunessan road to the foot of the south ridge of Beinn Talaidh.....

And yes, it is as steep as it looks! There is lots of parking at the start of the track that runs up the glen to the east of the hill and I was glad to see that the trees were not as extensive as the map suggests. I had only gone 50 yards from the car when I spotted two golden eagles circling above the hill and then lower down an even bigger bird- a white-tailed eagle. This is the largest bird of prey in Europe; it was wiped out after centuries of persecution but reintroduced to western Scotland in the 1970's after an absence of almost 70 years. Mull is a particularly good place to see both eagle species, in fact, I saw a total of 6 golden eagles during the few days that I spent there.

Anyway back to Beinn Talaidh..... It was steep and it was a hot day and I was glad to have some respite at around the 400m height where the angle eased and the ridge became more defined.....

Shortly after that, I got my first view of Ben More to the west, still with a few patches of snow on it.....

After about 2 hours toil, I reached the trig and cairn.....

where I was mightly glad to sit down and take in the views. To the east was the Corbett of Dun do Gaoithe which was also on my list of wanted hills for the week if the weather held.....

and of course Ben More which wasn't on my list this trip.....

Ben Talaidh is another of those hills that has aircraft wreckage on it, in this case, a Dakota KK194 which crashed on 1 February 1945. I found a book about the crash in a shop in Tobermory and bought it to learn more about the incident, which was remarkable in that 5 out of the 8 people on board survived.

The hill stats are 4 miles, 650m of ascent, taking 4 hours and 10 minutes car to car.

Beinn Lora

10 April 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - Beinn Lora, 308m/1,010', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 49, NM 919377

I was heading for Mull for a few days before going on to an MBA meeting at Roybridge and took in Beinn Lora on the way up. I have climbed this hill a few times before; it is an excellent short walk waymarked from Benderloch and there are fine views from the summit. It overlooks the Connel bridge, which now carries the road over Loch Etive but which was built originally to take the Oban to Ballachulish railway line. For a time, it carried both rail and road- something that I can vaguely remember from my childhood- but since the railway was closed in 1966, it is a road bridge only.

 The weather had changed suddenly from winter to spring and it was a hot day. The first part of the walk was through the forest on a marked track.  A gate at the top of the forest led on to a boggy col before the final climb to the summit plateau. This is the view from the gate looking to the summit....

and approaching the trig....

The main reason for this hill's popularity is the quality of the views. Firstly up Loch Etive to Ben Cruachan...

over Oban airport to Connel....

north to the hills of Appin and south Glencoe....

and across the Firth of Lorn to Mull....

This was an easy short walk to start the week; it was 3 miles with 300m of ascent and as I lazed about in the sunshine at the summit for a while it occupied 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Corse Hill

4 April 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - Corse Hill, 376m/1,232', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 64, NS 598464

I like wind turbines, provided that they don't spoil remote places. I find the gentle swish of the blades soothing. One ideal place for turbines is in Whitelee forest, just to the south of Glasgow. This used to be an area of forest and rough moorland with not a lot to commend it; in my view, the turbines have added interest and there is now a good network of tracks for walking, cycling etc. The fact that the highest point of the wind farm is also a Marilyn made another reasons for visiting. The highest point is named Corse Hill.

It had been raining earlier in the day but an afternon clearance gave just enough time to visit using the shortest way to the top-an old forest track from the houses at Carrot, south of Eaglesham. The turbines started to appear immediately.....

The 140 turbines at Whitelee are among the biggest currently made for on-shore sites, each one is 2MW installed capacity I think.....

This is the approach to the summit of Corse Hill, the trig can just be seen on the high ground to the left of the turbine.....

and the view over Glasgow from the trig.....

and here are two views of the wind farm generally.....

This was a short walk on tracks all of the way; the return trip is 4 miles with a height gain of only about 130m. It took 2 hours.