7 January 2018
Participants: Just me
Where: Neilston Pad, 261m/856', Tump p49, OS 64, NS 477 551
A new year and after a long spell of grey and very wet weather, it was a cracking winter's day for my first walk. It was -6C when I started out and I even had to remove some ice from the inside windows of the car. I decided on something close to home, there were lots of Tumps to choose from Renfrewshire way so I ended up driving to Neilston to tackle one of the most prominent, Neilston Pad. I parked partly on a wide pavement close to the entrance to the track to Craig of Neilston farm, which was the route to the hill.
I followed the track past the farm which seemed to be deserted, took a left turn then a right to get on to a broad path which slanted up the east side of the Pad. There were good views of Snypes Dam from here (why are all the wee lochs called "Dams" around here?).....
The path reached a fence from where it was only a short walk over tussocky ground to the top. Everything was frozen today but it looked as though this would be usually quite a muddy walk. The highest point was marked by a small pile of stones not far from a larger cairn which was the better viewpoint.....
Although it was clear blue sky and sunny, there was a bit of a haze which diminished the distant views. Nevertheless, I could see the snow covered Arran peaks to the south west over Commore Dam.....
but the view to Harelaw Dam was affected by the strong low sun......
There is a good network of tracks and paths on this hill so after returning to the fence, I headed on south west. This is looking back to the summit area.....
A combination of paths led me down to Craighall Dam. Neilston Pad rose steeply above it.....
A walk through a bit of Sitka forest took me along the loch shore and eventually back on to the track that I had started out on. There were a few more folk about now; the paths around the lochs seem to be a popular local walk. The weather helped but even without that I would have been impressed with this hill, which I would never have thought about had I not discovered Tumps. And there a lot more Tumps in this area; just right for short winter days!
3 comments:
It's a very prominent table top hill viewed from many parts of north Glasgow as well. I grew up an easy bike ride from it and it was always a favourite summit along with Duncarnock and Walls Hill.(also cracking little hills if they feature in any lists) Glad you enjoyed it Neil. I loved exploring rural Renfrewshire as a teenager, full of little woods, small gorges, escarpment ridge lines running across it in wave-like abundance with dozens of small dams in the deeper hollows. A unique landscape as I've not found another like it anywhere else within Scotland. Or anyplace like Glasgow, landscape wise, with a flat valley basin made up of hundreds of drumlins( The city tends to obscure the underlying network of small hills which must have looked similar to Rural Renfrewshire at some point.
Nice area and nice photos. I like the frozen ponds.
I've found a lot of interesting looking hills in the area (on the map) which I intend to visit before the weather improves enough to warrant going further afield. Duncarnock looks particularly interesting.
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