Mugdock.

Bit of a panic when I realised I had still had some way to go before the end of the year to get my annual tally of 100 trig points.It`s hard when your bagging year is taken up by hillwalking as one a day is the usual rule and even that`s if you are lucky.So,every so often the need for a low level campaign arises ...such as today.

There are quite a few in the Mugdock area north of Milngavie that hadn`t seen attention from me and it suited the bill for a midweek foray.In order to avoid the rush hour traffic I picked up Bob at around 10am and followed his directions,this being his backyard, to a car park in Mugdock estate.The forecast was for reasonable weather up to noon and then a short spell of heavy rain so we didn`t waste any time.

First stop was Mugdock Hill...


....from where we scaled the barbed wire fence to get out on to the road near Millionaire`s Row with it`s Footballers Wives style houses.Outside the entrance to one the Milngavie Fundamental Benchmark sat proudly awaiting a good bagging :)


The GPS was acting up and there was little chance of finding the buried bernsten which lurked nearby.Heavy dark clouds were scudding quickly towards us from the Renfrewshire area so we departed hurriedly to the car to sit it out.We were glad we did because it really was torrential.As it tailed off we drove round to the main visitor centre car park for round two.Bob knows this area like the back of his hand so I was content to follow his guided tour as we negotiated our way down via the Khyber Pass in search of the next trig on a hill in Hilton Park golf course.We joined up with the West Highland Way at the bottom of the hill and turned north.


The West Highland Way...



We could see the hill on the other side of the Allander Water but the recent heavy rainfall had made it impossible to cross...another failure..!

Not to worry though,the sun was out now so we decided to carry on up the WHW around Craigallian Loch and Carbeth Loch to the Blanefield road.It was around this area that the climbers from the Depression in the 1930`s gathered at weekends.There are quite a few good books around including this biography of Jock Nimlin by the excellent Ernest Press entitled "May the fire always be lit".These guys were hard men of the hills.! A nice stocking filler for someone at Xmas...

Jock Nimlin

Dumgoyne from Craigallian Loch...pity about the cables spoiling the view....



Along towards Blanefield past Pillar Crag where we had been climbing many years ago.Looks someone had been giving it a clean up as a few of the better lines appeared to have been stripped of moss.Bob disappeared into the undergrowth soon after and and a few minutes of steepish mudbashing later took us out onto a balcony trail which I would never have expected to exist.


Although it was muddy going and we were denied the views across to Dumgoyne the colours were quite wonderful and the moss and other vegetation gave it a sort of "magic forest" feel.The polar opposite of last week in Spain :)



A quick thrash through the woods towards the building marked Boards on the OS map ensued....


.....from where we followed the track along the top of Cuilt Brae.The sun was dancing and playing tricks with the light over the crags on the Campsies...




Years ago,when inspired by a geology nightschool class I was attending,I wandered up to the crag seen on the right hand side of the pic above.A fresh landslide had cleaved the hillside,like a smaller version of the Whangie, and I was lucky enough to find a few half decent examples of amethyst and jasper.Jasper is quite common up on this section of the Campsies if you keep your eyes peeled.


Blanefield enjoys some late winter sunshine....


From here a fifteen minute walk over the moor past Dumbrock Loch saw us back at the car park having only met two people all day.I was still bemoaning the two failed trigs on the drive back down the road when Bob must have taken pity on me."There`s one over in Faifley you haven`t done if you want to nip over" he said.There`s not many folk who would park and go for a walk through a housing scheme to bag a trig with me :)
Number 91 for the year was duly bagged.My spirits soared even further to find on return that the car still had all four wheels intact :)

More information on Mugdock can be found here....

Mugdock