Hill of Wirren

18 April 2014

Participants: Just me

Where: Hill of Wirren, 678m/2,224', Graham, Map 44, NO 523739

Hill of Wirren is a big, sprawling mass of a hill that is well seen from the A90 between Forfar and Brechin. I had passed it on many occasions but it hadn't registered what hill it was.....

 

 

There are lots of routes on to the hill and I chose to go in from Glen Lethnot. Signposts don't seem to have found their way onto the little roads north of Brechin and more by guesswork than anything else I found my way to the starting point at Auchourie where there was space to park a number of cars at the start of a Right of Way that went over the hills to Glen Esk and then Ballater. Spring had definitely sprung- the air was full of the cries of Peewit, Curlew and Oyster Catcher. I didn't take the RoW but instead went up the track next to it which led to the farm. Just before reaching the buildings, I went through a gate into a field, followed a grassy path through it, went through another gate, across a bit of heather, and joined a wide track heading uphill. More about tracks later. The view to the head of Glen Lethnot opened up as I climbed with the Glen Clova hills coming into view behind it.....

 

 

 

As far as I can recall, this was the first time I had been in Glen Lethnot. I was brought up in Dundee and the Angus glens are a favourite but I was seeing them today from a different angle. The track ended half way up the hill but was replaced by a path through the heather that led to the plateau summit. It was a bit eroded up here.....

 

 

but the peat was dry so it was no bother. Here, I was looking north over Glen Esk to the most eastern Corbett, Mount Battock.....

 

 

Rather than go back the same way, I decided to head for West Wirren. A track went all the way. As I was heading along it, a vehicle approached from the other direction and the keeper stopped to chat. He was out checking on the grouse. I was glad that I had decided not to take Ben- I didn't think that the locals would be very happy at a thought of a spaniel charging through the heather disturbing nesting birds. And there were lots of grouse up here.

 

I got another good view of Mount Battock from the col between the two tops.....

 

 

West Wirren was a better viewpoint. This is looking towards Mount Keen, the most easterly Munro....

 

 

and beyond it were the still snow capped hills around Lochnagar.....

 

 

My route led down the south ridge of West Wirren. I was shocked at the number of hill tracks here, they were on every hill that I could see. This included this dual carriageway that I was following.....

 

 

There was a fence between the two tracks and I guess that one was on one estate and it's neighbour was on another. You would have thought that they could have co-operated and agreed to build just one track between them. While grouse shooting is important to the local economies it should not come at the expense of such desecration of the hills. Even the shooting butts here were a bit over the top.....

 

 

Here is a look across to Hill of Wirren from lower down the track.....

 

 

The walk took just less than 4 hours so I had time for some Ancient Monuments on the way home.....

 

 

The road from Glen Lethnot to Brechin passes between the Brown and the White Caterthuns, hill forts sitting at the tops of two adjacent hilltops. They were thought to have been constructed and used during the Iron Age and there is also a Roman connection. I took a wander up the White Caterthun. The walls had been estimated to have been about 20m high but of course there are now only heaps of stones. It is though an impressively big area within the walls.....

 

 

And the fort certainly commanded the countryside round about; this is looking north to the hill that I had just climbed.....

 

 

I stopped again just west of Brechin to have a look at the Aberlemno standing stones. Three of these Pictish stones are now set alongside the road with a fourth in the local churchyard. The carvings were really clear. This is one of the roadside stones- it is carved on one side with symbols of a serpent over a double-disc and z-rod with a mirror and comb beneath. On one side are cup marks which the information board says has prompted some archaeologists to suggest that the stone might be originally Neolithic or Bronze Age re-used by the Picts.....

 

 

One side of the stone in the churchyard is carved with a cross surrounded by serpents and horses and the other depicts a battle. The information board says that it may represent the Battle of Nechtansmere, fought about 6 miles south of Aberlemno in 685AD.

 

 

My final stop on the journey home was to a much less exotic site- the Little Chef outside Dunblane.