Cruach Tairbeirt

Participants- Me and Ben
Where- Cruach Tairbeirt, 415m/1,362', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 56, NN 312058

28 February. The weather in February had been dismal with day after day of grey sky, mist and sometimes rain. However, as the month drew to a close it finally cleared; it's true what they say, your spirits rise when there is blue sky and sunshine overhead- at least, mine do. Cruach Tairbeirt is a favourite sub-2,000' Marilyn of mine. It is only a small hill but the views are out of all proportion to its size; it's not a hill to go up on a day of limited visibility. As its name implies, it rises above the village of Tarbet on the west side of Loch Lomond. It provides a grandstand seat for the Arrochar Alps immediately to the north west. This is a view of it from Firkin Point to the south with A'Chrois and Ben Vorlich rising behind.....

I parked at Arrochar station from where an underpass leads onto the lower slopes of the hill and a number of waymarked walks. The red route almost immediately climbed steeply through the forest, a bit of a pech for me but the Furry One set off as if he was doing the flat 100 metre sprint. Fortunately, he only goes a short distance at a time before racing back to find out what is keeping me. I left the main path shortly after crossing a stream and followed its true left bank before cutting through the trees on an obvious sloping line. Once out of the forest, the views soon opened up; this is looking back across Loch Lomond to Ben Lomond.....

Although not one of the official routes on the hill, the path went all the way to the trig, which was situated on a bit of a plateau with fine views of the higher hills immediately across Glen Loin.....

This is Ben at the summit with the Cobbler and Beinn Narnain in the background.....

"Well I've made it to the top, where are my treats then".....

There was a good view of the Loch Sloy dam from here with the loch squeezed between the hills of A'Chrois, Ben Vane and Ben Vorlich. This was the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Boards first project (1945-50) and it was built to supply electricity to Glasgow. I have a copy of "The Hydro Boys" by Emma Wood and the fascinating story of the building of the Loch Sloy scheme is told in that .....

You can see lots of lochs from Cruach Tairbeirt; this picture is looking down Loch Long towards eventually the Firth of Clyde; the Brack is the pointed hill on the right.....

And this is looking across Loch Lomond to Cruinn a'Bheinn and Ben Lomond; the former is on my list of hills to do and I reckon that you must get a great view of the Ben from it.....

Rather than return the same way, we dropped down another and much steeper path due east of the summit. It turned out to be not so good however as the forest section was very wet and muddy and there were also some fallen trees to negotiate before the "path" eventually rejoined the route of ascent. A good short days outing and we stopped at the Firkin Point car park on the way back to sit in the warm sunshine and to let Ben dry out a bit.

Black Hill (Pentlands)

8 February 2011.

Participants - Me and Ben
Where -  Black Hill (Pentlands), 501m/1,645', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 65/66, NT 188632

The forecast promised a bright day with plenty of sunny periods especially in the east so I headed for the Pentlands. I could see blue sky in front of me as I drove along the motorway but it never seemed to get any closer and I reckon that I would have had to carry on well into the North Sea before I got any of the forecast conditions! However it was dry and the conditions were quite atmospheric for photography.

On previous visits to the Black Hill I have always approached it from Balerno. I fancied a change so today I drove round to Flotterstone and parked at the Ranger Centre. Although the route from here is initially along a tarmac road, it follows a fold in the hills past a couple of reservoirs and is probably more scenic. The Black Hill is tucked out of sight from this approach and I only got my first view of it when I reached the far end of Glencorse reservoir.....

A newish track seems to start around here before winding across the south side of Black Hill before ending close to the summit. It must be for the grouse shooting. However, there were a lot of sheep on the hillside about here and as the lambing season is fast approaching and I wasn't sure how Ben would react to sheep- he hasn't met one of these funny wooly things at close quarters yet- I decided to carry on up the road and try to find another route up the hill. Black Hill is a name usually given to hills with lots of heather on them and I was resigning myself to a plod through the stuff when, almost at the west end of Loganlea reservoir, I spotted an old and partially overgrown track heading up the hill. So we took that. The sun was trying its best to come out but never made much progress; this is looking to Scald Law from the track.....

There is a small cairn on the plateau although I am not sure if it actually marks the highest point; with the aid of treats I managed to get Ben to stay still long enough at it for the obligatory summit picture. This is with Scald Law in the background.....

and this one is with the Kips beyond.....

We just followed the same route back. There was a good view of Loganlea reservoir from lower down with Carnethy Hill beyond.....

and we were soon back on the road, passing Glencorse reservoir again (Castlelaw Hill beyond).....

I reckon that this route was about 7 miles or so and it took just short of 4 hours.

Benarty Hill

1 February.

Participants - me and Ben
Where - Benarty Hill, 356m/1,168, Sub-2,000 Marilyn, OS map 58, NT 153979.

The weather wasn't particularly great but the forecast for the rest of the week was worse so out we went. Benarty Hill rises above the south shore of Loch Leven and was ideal for a short day.....

On a previous occasion that I did this one I approached from Vane Farm to the north; not a good route with lots of tangled grass and heather. So this time I took the easy option, a route from the south from an unclassified road that goes to Ballingry. There was parking space for a couple of cars at the start of a signed track that goes up through the forest. Here is Ben encouraging me to get a move on.....

The track is excellent and goes almost to the top of the forest.....

This is obviously a popular route as a path has been formed across the moorland above......

The sky was getting darker and sure enough the rain came on but fortunately the worst of it passed to the north and we pressed on to the trig.....

The trig is only a few yards from the edge of the steep northern slopes and there was a good view of Loch Leven from there with Bishop Hill and the Lomonds' in the background.....