Dollar Glen.King`s Seat Hill to Whitewisp Hill.

Yippee! After an average month weather wise where we were really just passing the time it`s business as usual now spring has arrived. We`ve been trying to go here to this area for weeks but today the gods of adventure were kind, stunning blue skies,not too much wind.
Time to hit the bigger hills again.


Let me say from the outset I love Dollar.Great to see the swanky Academy again and the mixed ranks of golfers strolling into the upmarket clubhouse.Being a toothless old tramp of some merit I like seeing a bit of posh totty passing me by. Mind you with my shining charisma obvious to all, beautiful women fall into my path like autumn leaves into a pond. (Yeah right.Dream on,Alex.)
Mr Rift Baboon had never been up the famous Dollar Glen before on the way to Castle Campbell looming above the town so we parked beside the tumbling stream at the bottom and set off.
Birdsong was in full swing.Grey wagtails, Tree drumming woodpeckers and assorted garden birds celebrating the new spring after a severe winter. As usual the message was always the same."I`m still here.I need a mate.I`m building a nest for you."

From the valley the snow didn`t look to bad high up.Deep and soft in the gullies but mostly clear on the ridgelines.Big day ahead for old legs though.Dollar Glen via Burn of Sorrow first then King`s Seat ,Maddy Moss,Tarmangie Hill,Whitewisp Hill and Saddle Hill,descending via the Burn of Care.
The real treasure of the Ochils though are its glens.Deep and narrow,always interesting.cool and dank in summer,warm and sheltered in winter.Dollar Glen is a cracker.It used to contain one of the man made wonders of Scotland.An amazing wooden walkway hugging the very bottom of the Burn of Sorrow all the way up this deep cleft,at times just above the rushing torrents then zigzagging madly on stilts with a 100 foot cliff looming above.Sadly said cliff collapsed,destroying part of the boardwalk years ago and they`ve never replaced it.
The remains of that path(windy edge) is still ok higher up but it`s deemed too dangerous to put back the original wonderful walkway inside the chasm.Shame ,usual H and S story,nuff said.
Anyway we followed this path on the side of the gorge up the hill to the ridge line.


After a seemingly never ending slog up the hill to King`s Seat the rest of this long horseshoe was straight forword and enjoyable apart from a few deep gullies filled with thigh deep snow and the sober reminder of a previous avalanche.

Alex got a few more bagging ticks on this hill which kept him happy,I really enjoyed the lushness of the glens......

and it was sunny and fairly warm all day.



Here`s a funny thing.Last week was mainly frustrating due to its stop- start nature completely befuddling ourselves along the Ayr gorge but the photos were great.Today was far more enjoyable a day but the pictures taken on the hill were nothing special.I first discovered this years ago when I had a terrific day on the hills above the Bridge of Orchy in full winter conditions but not a photo worth keeping.That`s still the amazing thing about photography in this digital age you never really know what you`ve got in the old tin can until you spill it out onto the open page.
We were both pretty tired after our canter round the hills.Thank god I`ve done all my Munro's these wee hills are more than enough now.


Oops, sorry.Here`s one I missed.




Alex.

Couple of hill shots from me.I like hills :o)

Bob on the way up King`s Seat Hill...


The view over to Dumglow and the Cleish Hills.....