Dumyat 418 metres. The Ochil Hills. Stirling Views. Ravens.

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Just back after a wee holiday with my favourite flirty female, 'Belle.' Enjoyed it immensely and didn't miss the blog at all- a sign that there is a world away from computers and a life lived online.
Anyway, back to boy's stuff now. This is a day trip from a few weeks ago when overnight temperatures fell to minus ten degrees but it was dry and sunny during the daytime. This is frost on the windscreen- inside the car. Takes me right back to my bedroom in Pollok in the 1950s before central heating appeared in council homes when many bedrooms in winter looked like this. We did have a coal fire but only in the living room at the other end of the house and if you left a glass of water on the bedroom window sill overnight it would have a thin film of ice on it by morning during a severe winter. Always loved that effect... but not the freezing cold indoors. It was metal framed windows and single panes of glass coupled with severe condensation problems inside due to cheap  building materials at the lowest possible cost when most European cities were tight for cash after the Second World War.

Dumyat, 418 metres, just to the east of Stirling was our destination. This rocky and steep little peak, sitting directly above Stirling University campus, may be one of the smaller summits in the Ochil Hills range but what it lacks in height it makes up for in character and attitude. Alan had never walked anywhere in the Ochils before and I was more than happy to go back to this fine range of hills as they are delightful.  Frozen bramble leaves above. Alan's dog was with us as usual.

Ben Lomond from Dumyat. We parked in the free car park under Dumyat, just east of the former goat milk spa village of Blairlogie- a novelty tourist resort in the Victorian era and still thriving today... only minus the goats and the milk.

After a steep climb up a wooded gorge we came to a faint trail branching off the main path. I found this route years ago and it's still a cracker today. Whereas most folk head up the gorge to a easy level section then an uninspiring ascent to the summit slopes this path trends right at the first opportunity, weaving a cunning line between vertical cliffs on the steep front face. It's not that exposed and it's really just an airy walk or balcony trail with little in the way of scrambling but it is highly enjoyable with magnificent views over the flat flood plain stretching out into the distance, dotted with little towns and villages. Not a place to have a stumble though and care should be taken on this sheep trail that you follow as it is very narrow in places with steep drops below.

After half a kilometer or so of pleasant sideways travel across the front face, skirting between the cliffs, an obvious opportunity arises to follow several easy grass gullies to the upper tier, avoiding any scrambling or vertical walls and staying on the grass. By now you have left the path behind but just keep weaving upwards until you reach a higher level of flat ground. From here the summit should be visible on a clear day and it's a simple broad track now (the normal tourist route) to the top.

As this is the rockiest peak in the Ochil range with steep cliffs all along its southern flank we were treated to close up views of the local ravens.

 Beautiful birds and like all the corvids, highly intelligent. They can communicate with each other and with other animals like foxes, wolves and wolverines, often using predators to kill meat for them by pointing out prey animals deliberately in winter from an elevated vantage point then getting a share of the bounty once the larger toothed predator has dispatched the victim and done the hard work of opening up the body.

It was a calm still day and any smoke or steam from chimneys lingered long in the air before eventually dissipating. A pastel paradise.

This white halo effect was actually just smoke from a small garden fire and a couple burning cleared vegetation in a minor scale operation, but it drifted for miles over the flood plain like a gently flowing snake of silvery substance with a life all its own. The River Forth in the distance.

River Forth getting wider around Kincardine.

A zoom of a microlight aircraft and the power station chimney.

Wallace Monument at Stirling. An iconic tower that could easily double for Dracula's Castle.

And a wider view of Stirling Castle behind and the wooded ridges they sit on.

Good beat, great song, stunning voice. Pop perfection. Posted for a girl who always loves colour, imagination, bright sunshine, and sparkling new ideas as much as I do. "Je vois la vie en rose."