Participants - Neil and Ben
Where - Lord Arthur's Hill, 518m/ 1,699', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 37, NJ 513 198
The clouds were breaking up and the sun was starting to appear when I got back down Benaquhallie. It was only a short drive to the next sub-2,000', Lord Arthur's Hill just west of Alford. A search of the internet suggests that the hill might be named after Lord Arthur Forbes, a local landowner in times past. This is a view towards the hill taken later in the day.....
According to the map there are lots of tracks on the hill but I decided to approach it from the A944, from the houses at Littlewood Park. There wasn't really any space to park the car at the entrance to the driveway to the house but there was a handy quarry area about 300m back along the road so I parked there. The only problem was having to walk with the dog along a main road but fortunately the traffic was very light.
After passing the big house, I came to some more buildings. A track, not marked on my map, headed left from here and seemed to head directly up the south ridge passing to the left of a wooded area so I took that. In fact, it met one of the tracks marked on the map not that far from the top.....
This was another hill with a big cairn, again in a strategic position overlooking the surrounding countryside. Maybe Lord Arthur surveyed his lands from here, although the cairn looks as though it might be quite modern.....
A few yards further on the highest point was marked by a trig. This is looking west towards The Buck (there was a lot of heather burning going on).....
Morven dominated the view to the south-west with Lochnagar beyond, this pic is zoomed.....
The estate seemed to be burning heather on the east side of the hill quite close to the summit so rather than go back by a different route on that side of the hill I just returned the same way. From the way down, there was a good view across the Howe of Alford with this morning's hill, Benaquhallie, in the distance.....
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