Hunt Hill,Glen Esk,Cairngorms.

Hunt Hill has been on the to do list for years now but there was forever something cropping up to prevent a wee trip up there.Not today though....guaranteed sunshine on the east coast and the fact that Bob had been on holiday and didn`t mind chauffeuring me 300 miles in his new car meant that we left my house at 8am.Up by Perth,Dundee and cut off the A90 just after Brechin.Does anybody ever intentionally visit Brechin ? A few miles along the B966 and we stumbled upon Edzell exactly two hours after leaving.

Lovely little village is Edzell....



It had been two years ago since our last visit to Glen Esk and it didn`t disappoint this time around either.It really is well worth a visit if you have never been.Fifteen miles or so from the start of the glen to the car park at Invermark and never a dull moment.We stopped a few times on the way up for photos.....lots of them.Plenty of bird life and a good selection of native trees to maintain interest,the rowans in particular seem to be more heavily laden this year than others.Bob also busied himself adding to his collection of roadkill shots :)

A Fat Bellied Thrush poses by the roadside :)


Tarfside and the rowans.....

The car park was pretty busy but fortunately Mount Keen was taking all the traffic.Another guy took the turn off for Loch Lee with us and was headed for Hunt Hill also.It was Kevin from up near Inverurie and we were to wander up the hill together.A few hundred yards and we drew level with Invermark Castle.....


Popped into the graveyard for a quick look and decided to spend some time there on the return..a lovely position on the shores of the loch.

Unusual old gravestone...

The weather was great...every bit the equal of the days we had in April and May.Bright sunshine,clear blue sky and even some mountain reflections on the mirror surface of Loch Lee.Even Bob was happy to be out on the hill today :)


We left the loch behind and took to the short rise skirting Monawee heading for the entrance to the gorge with the stalkers path which goes up by the Falls of Unich.

Myself with Craig Maskeldie on the left and Hunt Hill straight ahead...


Even though I had a good idea of the scenery we were about to encounter beforehand, I was still taken by surprise at the steep craggy grandeur of the area,especially the crags on the eastern face of Hunt Hill and Craig Maskeldie to the south.Almost as good as the west coast..!

The first of the falls...



We had a wee break at the foot of the falls for a bite to eat and discovered that Kevin had almost finished his Corbett round with only ten to go.It came as no real surprise to discover that seven of them were in the Southern Uplands...the price you pay for living in Aberdeenshire :)

A fantastically engineered old stalkers path took an improbable line up the side of the gorge.You can see how good it is on the bottom of this picture....


A view back down the same gorge from above....


Looking back down the way we had came with Loch Lee in the distance and the slopes of Craig Maskeldie on the right...

A pleasant walk up through the short clipped heather soon saw us at the summit.

Bob and Kevin with Lochnagar as a backdrop...


Kevin headed off to go down the gorge again as he had enjoyed it so much on the way up.Bob and I however headed in the opposite direction to visit a bothy we had heard about.

Heading off to the north with Mount Keen showing..



Johnny Gordon`s bothy...pretty basic inside but plenty of firewood around would make for a cosy winter night.


We contoured around the bottom of Hunt Hill and met up with our outward path at the flats below the Falls of Unich again.We could just make out Kevin in the distance on the sunlit fields below the falls....


The path became busier with daytrippers enjoying the good weather as we neared the road end.They were all Polish...perhaps working in the area.I know from years ago that the local food canning factory employed lots of seasonal workers so that may be one explanation.We also had a chat with a local woman from Montrose along with her Texan husband.

This reminded me of the time some years back when I was sitting alone at the summit of Handies Peak in Colorado.A guy wandered up and sat down a few yards away without even acknowledging me which was strange given that we were at 14,000 ft. and the only two on the mountain on a cracking afternoon.I tried starting a conversation with him and it was proving one sided.I asked him where he was from...."Texas" came the terse reply."Dallas ?" I queried..."Lubbock" he replied."Did you hear a frog there ?"I asked him. He got up and walked away...obviously no sense of humour :-)
( Think about it )

One last push saw us back at the old ruined chapel with it`s graveyard again.The old wall must take a pounding from the waves in winter time but still stands intact,a testament to the skill of the men that built it all those years ago.


What a place to be buried,eh ?


We were pretty knackered and the plan to visit the old standing stones further down the glen at Colmeallie was shelved...it would give us an excuse for another visit.As if we needed one....

As we turned through Perth on the way home we were treated to a lovely evening sky and the grey hanging mass of heavy cloud over the central belt ahead of us :)


The photographs cannot do justice to this fantastic hill day and neither can my pathetic prose.You had to be there...

Mount Hill.Cupar.Fife.

Hooray! A precious midweek day off stuck on to the start of the September weekend holiday.After three long months of dull unsettled weather in the west coast ( Hello barbecue summer!) I knew how Vincent Van Gogh was feeling when he left the drab winter fields of his Dutch homeland to paint sunshine colours in vibrant shimmering Provence.
I too headed off to seek fields of honeyed gold after watching the usual suspects turn up in the television sun lottery.No Alex this time, as he was working on a contract job.
Fife looked best this time,a lasting sun hole predicted after lunch before more dull skies swept in from the west.
Left a very overcast Glasgow at 10.00 am after a long lie and cruised smoothly to Cupar with the vague intention of trying to capture the colours of sunshine. (i.e. pictures of the harvest)


I wasn`t the only one making my way towards rich pickings in the corn fields of Fife.
Yes,I know they have a harvest in the west but its just a pale stunted shadow of the Eastern seaboards annual extravaganza.
I must point out at this point that I`m not anti west having lived all my life in Glasgow.I like it there. If it was sunny up the west coast I`d be spending all my time scaling jaggy peaks quite happily but the orange ball I worship at weekends tends to reside in the east so that's that I`m afraid until the situation changes.
Passed the massive Quaker oats factory on the outskirts of Cupar then parked at the long stay car park (free) in this busy market town beside the combined toilets/tourist centre.
This is on the east side of town off the A 91 St Andrews road just past the park and aptly named River Eden.
Trusting the weather forecast I set off on the bike into a howling gale and unpromising cold grey skies around 12.00 noon.
It`s always good to have a target to aim for,some destination in your sights just to get the juices flowing.
Now Alex likes to pat trig pillars,I`ve even seen him stroke them furtively when he thought I wasn't looking. Me, I like something a bit more impressive.More in keeping with the size of my ego perhaps.

Party due to the strong wind which was making cycling very difficult I headed towards the slopes of Mount Hill and the beacon of the Hopetoun Momument soaring above the woods which looked good for shelter."Now that's a beauty worth a pat or two on its stony windswept bum"I thought.
Following the map pleasant minor roads led uphill through a landscape dotted with busy tractors and static hay bales in all shapes and sizes.


This is obviously a frantic time for the farms,getting the hay and corn cut, stacked, dried and stored as even with its more favoured climate its still a race against the elements.


For the people involved this was the profit and loss time of the year when a whole seasons work was translated into hard cash in the bank.Worth skipping meals and working from dawn til dusk for.
I just stayed out of the way as much as possible pushing my bike up hidden tree hung rutted lanes towards the summit slopes.It was fairly hard work as well but far more enjoyable as It was my own idea not someone else. Funny that, If a boss had suggested it as an idea I`d have been less impressed!

Who says I`m not a bagger.45 hills for the trusty metal nag and I!

At the top I was pretty knackered but the sun was out.It was still windy but warm, tee shirt time again as I treated myself to a huge Mississippi mud muffin followed by grapes and thinly sliced chorizo. Job done.Stuffed and happy.
I had good views all the way down again still pushing the bike satisfied with my four hours of sunshine,worth the two hour drive to get here.Cycling back to Cupar it suddenly struck me how most of the farm animals had been relegated to the higher steeper slopes to make way for king corn in the valleys.Truly a different land.

A grand day out with the evening sun fading over the lomonds.Back in the house for nightfall and another massive Mississippi mud muffin. Like all the best things in life they are sadly addictive.

Winter. Get thee behind me.Nature willing, this year summer will last through until spring 2010.With a plate of these oversized American big sticky buns to munch I may well die trying!

Broughton Heights

In footballing jargon this was a day of two halves.A nice drive down to the small but pretty village of Broughton (OS map72) was enjoyable through fine rolling hills and farmland.

What wasn`t so enjoyable was the weather thereafter.No rain but drab grey skies, a raw wind that numbed the bare ears and just occasional brief glimpses of sunshine on other hills but never sadly on ours.

Culter Fell......

It wasn`t the hills fault,a high fairly nondescript grassy mound that would be pleasant enough to plod up on a warm sunny day but it was the sort of weather I hate with a vengeance.Although I dont really believe in that guff I`ve always suspected I have SAD as its the only thing that explains my mood shooting up and down like a cartoon barometer dependent on the weather.

The road to Broughton with the bulk of Culter Fell behind......


I love sunshine.Positively crave it.If I can`t have that then thunderstorms, gale force winds,crashing seas, any kind of dramatic weather I love but this was a nothing day on the high tops for me.Grey, empty and flat of emotion. but I did spot this. A little blob of colour on the drab slopes.


Like me the poor wee bugger looked as if it wanted to be somewhere else.Still ,Alex got his tick of a new hill (his drug of choice) so the second half of the day was my pick.It wasn`t even a hard sell as even Alex was bored by now.

Tinto in the distance...


As I`d never been there I asked Alex about Dawyck Botanic gardens not far away.
"Its a bunch of big trees in a glen" he replied underselling it slightly.
Lets go there then.
Dawyck is one of 4 botanic gardens in Scotland the others being Royal Edinburgh, Benmore and Logan.Together they make up one of the richest plant and tree collections in the world with more than 15,000 species.Thats almost seven percent of the known plant species.

As soon as we arrived in the car park my mood improved like a skylark soaring from the dark muddy bog.We were in one of the worlds finest arboreta with some of the tallest trees in Britain.It was like getting the keys to willie wonka land.Waterfalls, little bridges, pools, sculptures, something interesting round every new corner.




And it was warm, almost tropical after the frozen uplands.All that was missing was monkeys and uoompa loompas.

But if you take one of these that might change.The Vikings reputedly used to consume these going into battle but as they tended not to live long anyway it wasn`t a problem.My favourite of the Amanita family is the sweetly named "Destroying Angel". That also does what it says on the tin.
Found these little sap suckers nearby. An adult and a juvenile I think. Or maybe different tree types .There seem to be one for every main tree group.

Thought I`d sum up the day with a mixture of autumnal colours gathered as windfall in this lovely garden.£4 admission and a bargain.It saved the day for me.

On the way back to Alex`s we passed the old Lanark racecourse with this weather beaten reminder of its glory days.A fine autumn evening after a cold grey start.

Alex: Couple of pics from me.....

Bob and one of the giant Sequoia trees.....


Bob worries about me sometimes due to the fact that I`ll bag anything that doesn`t move.He was kind enough to indulge me,inadvertently it must be said,by parking the car in the village of Broughton three feet away from a nice wee flush bracket....


.....and directly across the road from this well preserved Victorian post box...

Dun da Ghaoithe,Mull.

At long last.....bon temps for the west coast hills :) Scott and I had been waiting all year for a good forecast to go over to Mull for Dun da Ghaoithe.Bob was also keen to get back up here and Gavin and Millie the dug decided to tag along as well.This also meant that we could travel up in a bit of leg stretching luxury in the Bongo.


I picked up Bob at 7.10am and we then headed up to the arranged meeting place at Scott`s house.We were a wee bit early so stopped on the way there to take a few pics.

Early morning mist over Glasgow with the Shaw building in Bearsden prominent on the left...


No answer at the door but it was ok...Scott was having a fag out the back.I joined him and soon the throaty rumble of the Bongo heralded the arrival of the Prince of Darkness and his canine co-driver.We piled in and set off for Oban and the first Sunday ferry at 9.50am.We made it with 20 minutes to spare,found a free car park,booted up and went to pay for our tickets...£7.75 each.It was surprisingly busy given the time of year and this resulted in a delay of almost half an hour.

Who cares about delays on a morning like this anyway....rounding Kerrera with Dun da Ghaoithe in the distance..




Obligatory passing shot of Duart castle from the boat...



A further delay ensued as we queued to get off....we were running late now.Half an hour of tarmac bashing saw us at the start of the track which branches off the A849 and gives access to the hill.The guidebooks and websites mention a sign for "Bird of Prey Centre" at this point but it seems to have fallen victim to the recession and doesn`t exist anymore.It`s a good tarmac road up until Upper Achnacroish.....


....from where it deteriorates to a gravel land rover track.Pic courtesy of Scott.



This leads up to the second of two telecom installations.One for tv and radio coverage and the other for mobile phones.

Gavin curses T-Mobile`s lack of coverage in the highlands...



....while we enjoy the view back to the cloudy mainland.




Millie had been quite restrained up until this point,mainly due to lack of sticks lying around.This was sorted to her satisfaction however when she spotted one in a hill lochan further up and in she went....


Returning with the prize.....



This dog never gets bored with the chasing stick game...




The views were beginning to open out.Here`s a zoomed shot of the Paps of Jura 38.62 miles to the south :)



Jura,Scarba,The Garvellachs and more.....


Myself just before the summit.Pic courtesy of Scott.




We reached the first top followed by two guys who were working on the telecom station and couldn`t resist a trip up to the top on a day like this.They travel all over the UK working on masts but never one with a view like this they said.It really is a grandstand viewpoint.Skye,Rum,Eigg,the whitewashed houses of Armadale on Skye were visible,over to the Uists.Behind Jura and Islay the coast of Ireland at Malin Head was clearly visible 95.47 miles in the distance,Arran too. Guess who`s having fun with Anquet :)


Bob and Gavin with Lismore in the background...



Zoomed shot of Tobermory and Uist in the background over the sea...



Millie patrols the summit area looking for a new stick,her previous one having been...ahem..."lost".



We couldn`t afford to spend a lot of time on the top as we had a ferry to catch at 5pm.An uneventful descent, except for a section of horrendous waist high bracken near the bottom, and we were back on the road just to the west of Scallastle with a two mile walk back to the ferry terminal which we made with half an hour to spare.

Scott descending...pic by Bob.



A flock of Canada geese with the odd Greylag were having a feed at this field at Scallastle.Autumn is here..





A lovely hour watching the scenery on the sail back to Oban.The lighthouse at the tip of Lismore...



Yachts moored at Kerrera.....




It had proved a harder day than we had anticipated. Much harder for some than others it would seem ....



A couple of panoramas from Scott.....