Nutberry Hill

31 July 2012

Participants - Just me
Where - Nutberry Hill, 522m/1,712', Sub-2k Marilyn, Map 71, NS 743338

The few reports that I'd read about Nutberry Hill commented on very rough going so I'd been putting it off; however it looked as though it might be a decent summit and as the weather window was only for one day and I'd done most of the other Marilyns close to home, I could avoid it no longer. I parked on some hard standing at the entrance to Priesthill Farm, a couple of miles north of Muirkirk on the B743. Nutberry Hill looked a long way away (probably because it was!), it is beyond the trees in the far distance in this photo.....

The first couple of miles as far as the house at Priesthill were along a good track; the view to the south was of the dominant hill in this area and a favourite of mine, Cairn Table.....

The map showed a footpath continuing after the house as far as the Martyrs Grave (the covenanter John Brown) but it very soon disappeared in some rushes and I never found it again. So I just angled up the gentle rising hillside keeping to the areas that had the shortest grass and least tufts. By keeping it slow and watching my footing it turned out to be not too bad and it didn't take too long to get to the top of Priesthill Heights where I got my first sight of the objective for the day.....

The fences up here looked quite new although they had barbed wire on top so I was glad to soon find a gate to clamber over. I then followed the fence alongside the edge of the forest, it was much rougher ground here but there were occasional motorbike tracks which helped. I crossed another fence, then a forest track, and started the long gentle ascent to the summit, helped by more 4WD tracks.....

There was a trig which was not quite at the highest point and as I had hoped, some good views from what was a quite small summit area. The visibility was excellent. This is looking towards the central belt towns.....

south east to Tinto.....

and back in the direction that I had come. Middlefield Law is the pointy hill towards the centre of the picture.....

It had been a bit of a trek, almost 5 miles, so I sat about at the trig for a while to get some strength back before setting off back the way that I had come. This is the view from Priesthill Heights with my starting/finishing point at the buildings beyond the wood in the centre of the picture.....

So it turned out not to be as bad going as I had imagined with the bonus of a fine summit viewpoint. But it is one to keep for a good day. As well as two fences that I would have had to have lifted Ben over there were a lot of sheep about so it was not a dog friendly hill.