Grey Hill

9 January 2012

Participants - Steven, Ben and Neil
Where - Grey Hill, 297m/975', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 76, NX 164928

There has been a lot of weather in west central Scotland in the past weeks, rain, wind, a little snow, rain, wind. You get the picture. Even Ben was starting to get fat from lack of exercise. So when a good day eventually came along, there was only one thing to do....grab it.

The better weather was coming in from the west so it was into the car for a run down the Ayrshire coast. Grey Hill is a small lump just to the south of Girvan but it promised a good view of Ailsa Craig. I took the Newton-Stewart road out of Girvan and after a couple of miles, at Pinmore, turned on to a single track road that passed the east slopes of the hill. There was space to park a car just off the road near the farm of Knocklaugh from where a path started up towards the hill. There were two immediate problems; the entrance to the path was by a stile and Ben has so far proved unable to tackle these on his own. So he had to be lifted over. The second problem was that the "path" was a sea of mud; Ben was on his lead at this stage and was so excited and desperate to be off that I had to watch that I was not dragged face down into and then through the mud! Having survived that, we wandered up a very wet hillside for a bit before arriving at this sign and another fence and stile.....

Having lifted Ben over again, things improved after that. The hillside was much drier as we gained height and the only worry was that there were a lot of sheep about. However, they had obviously clocked us and they soon moved off. There was a 4wd track higher up but on the way up that was where the sheep were so we detoured towards the north ridge to avoid them.....

It was good firm going on short grass and we were soon at the trig; it was indeed a good viewpoint. This is Steven and Ben with Girvan in the background.....

me and Ben with Ailsa Craig in the background.....

and a zoomed shot of Ailsa Craig. It looks like an exciting Marilyn to do.....

It could have been a spring day, warm with only a gentle breeze. Going down, we had to repeat the dog lifting exercise but managed to avoid a lot of the wetter ground although not the mud. And going down through the trees....was that a midge....surely not! What was not in dispute was the snowdrops that were fully out in sheltered spots beside the burn. And sitting in the car preparing to leave we watched a treecreeper running up an old tree in front of us. Could spring really be on its way?