Hills among windmills

21 August 2017

 

Participants: Neil and Ben

Where: Blackwood Hill, 309m/1014', Tump, OS 64, NS 544 484 and Ballageich Hill, 333m/1,093', Tump, OS 64, NS 532 502

 

Todays dog walk was among the windmills at Whitelee windfarm. Not sure if it is still the largest in the UK but if not, its successor must be huge. I don't mind turbines, if they are in the right place. Whitelee, which is desolate moorland to the south west of Glasgow, is in my view ideal. Scottish Power have done a great job here, creating a leisure area in amongst the turbines for walkers, dog walkers, runners, cyclists, horse riders. There are a number of signposted routes, the longest of which is 22 miles, which gives an indication of the scale of the place. Their publicity blurb says that the windfarm covers an area greater in size than Glasgow. And there is a visitor centre with an excellent café.

 

There was of course an ulterior motive in us going to Whitelee- the area contains a number of Tumps. Blackwood Hill was on the to do list, only a couple of miles from the visitor centre. This is a view of it from the road to the north; the hill is the long ridge towards the centre right of the photo.....

 

 

The moorland about here certainly is rough.....

 

 

But the turbines in this setting are fine, at least to my eyes and ignoring thoughts of the subsidies paid to the companies for actually generating electricity (and for not generating electricity).....

 

 

We walked past the end of Lochgoin reservoir....

 

 

and up a path to the top of Blackwood Hill, on which Scottish Power have built a topograph and have placed seats for visitors to sit and enjoy the view.....

 

 

I had intended to carry on to do Dunwan, another Tump, but the local farmer had unhelpfully decided to park a herd of sheep on the approach slopes and as I didn't fancy being dragged up and down the hill by an excitable spaniel I decided to leave this one for another day. So it was back to the visitor centre for a cup of coffee and on with plan B.

 

This involved a short drive along the road to a layby at the foot of Ballageich Hill, which is outwith the windfarm. This was much more like a real hill, tussocks and upland bog. There were traces of a path.....

 

 

but generally it was find your own way to the small pile of stones that apparently marked the highest point.....

 

 

The views weren't bad for a hill of this height, north to Glasgow with the Campsie Fells beyond (you can make out the distinctive shape of Dumgoyne).....

 

 

and west to the Ayrshire coast with the Arran peaks just visible in the distance.....

 

 

A short day, but it was all that I was looking for as the clouds were steadily building up.