I hadn’t been planning to get out in the hills at all on this day. The MWIS forecast was pointing to excessively high winds on most of the higher tops, so I reckoned the sensible thing to do was just to go for a run somewhere at low level and leave the radio at home. As it turned out, I ended up feeling a bit ropey and not quite right through the night and early in the morning, so I cancelled my running plans and just decided to have an easy day. I joined in to catch the post GB2RS net, and on a quick chat with Jack @GM4COX, I mentioned the idea of just nipping out in the afternoon for one of the local one-pointers, just to get me out the house if nothing else.
I’d initially been thinking of heading to GM/SS-220, Blaeloch Hill on account of it being about a 40 minute drive and a very short and simple ascent from the nearby crematorium, but on second thoughts, I knew a way I could integrate this summit into a fairly fun running route, so I decided to keep this one for another day. The next alternative was The Fruin, a fairly unremarkable hill just outside of Helensburgh, with a similarly short drive and seemingly straightforward ascent.
I parked up just off the A814 in Shandon, just at the bottom of the road up to Stuckenduff Farm. The road starts off pleasantly enough, gaining height through some nice fancy houses, before taking a pretty dramatic figurative and literal turn under the railway line at Stuckenduff farm itself.
The abandoned boat, and general motor-cowp vibes would set the tone well for what lay ahead. The signage and general vibe from round about the farm itself were pretty unwelcoming, and I probably wouldn’t recommend this as a route unless seeking maximum efficiency at the expense of a pleasant time. Although there are a network of tracks taking you most of the way from Stuckenduff to very close to the summit, I think most of these form part of a 4x4 driving activity area, as well as some kind of airsoft/paintball shooting range.
I think this is possibly one of those access code grey areas where it could be argued both ways that walkers have the right to use the tracks, but also that it’s a dedicated sporting activity area much like a golf course or a football pitch and we don’t have the right to disturb those activities.
I think the photo above generally encapsulates the kind of scenery you’re likely to enjoy passing through Stuckenduff, and it’s only marginally better once you get a bit higher up. Although there are a couple of track options to take you most of the way up, these are pretty muddy and rutted up, as well as being littered with various-sized bits of broken Land Rover (from entire bumpers, to tiny fragments of indicator light housings glittering in the puddles). Anyway, this is probably one of the number one areas in the whole country for perfectly good natural scenery being ruined by people building stupid stuff, so there you go…
On reaching the termination of the track, you’re just short of the 350m contour at NS 273 871, so you’d be well within the activation zone based on the summit height of 361m, but if like me, it doesn’t feel like you’ve completed it til you’ve visited the summit itself, your next move is to take a hard right. While the summit is tantalisingly visible, there’s also a pretty solid deer fence in the way too, so you’ll need to head towards the gap between the rise to the right and the summit here, where there’s a gate through the deer fence (and another gate in a smaller fence just before the summit. Passing across this area is soft, boggy, and there are a number of bonus tree-planting drainage holes (not sure what the technical term for these is) to catch you out should you stop thinking about your footing for a minute. There are a couple of quad-bike scrapes that can be followed, but they don’t tend to be much easier or last very long.
The gate in the deer fence on approach towards the summit area.
For reasons unknown, there are two small cairns on the summit area - pass the first one, and carry on towards the northerly of the two to what I’d say feels more like the true summit. Once you’re there, you’ll see a small rocky crag to the north of the summit cairn, and that gives the perfect operating area just down out of the wind.
After a bit of faffing in the strong winds, I was able to get the Slim G mounted on the 4m pole, and get just enough coax down to operate in the wee natural den formed by these rocks. The trusty FT-270 was soon fired up, and I took a couple of false starts with a battery that wasn’t quite as charged as I thought it was, and my mast rigging not being quite as solid as I thought it was either. It wasn’t a day for hanging about, so I got my basic five contacts (four for the activation points plus one for luck) and decided it’d be a good time to get out of there pronto after a victorious summit selfie.
It had only taken about 50-55 minutes to get to the top, so I was confident it wouldn’t take long to get back down, but I was also acutely aware of the time and the amount of daylight I might have to work with, especially on a gloomy overcast day like this one.
Incidentally, I did happen across a very fresh looking track that hadn’t quite made it to the maps yet - I’ll need to try and investigate this some time, as it looked like it could be cycled up, giving the double benefit of being nice and quick, and avoiding the worst of the mess at Stuckenduff Farm. It looked like it dropped down towards the A814 just to the south of the 281m spot height at NS 271 863, but Google’s aerial images also seemed to show a new-built track emerging from the Highlandman’s Wood somewhere round about NS 275 860.
On a sunnier day, or with a bit more time to play with, I might’ve been inclined to go and have a wee explore, but with things being as they were, I opted to return back through the Discovery Graveyard and get back to my (only marginally more presentable) car and make tracks for home.
In summary - I probably wouldn’t recommend this in good faith as a nice route. I believe other options are available from either near the shooting range at the head of Glen Fruin, or by following the “ridge” top from Tom na h-Airidh, although I reckon both would involve a good amount of soggy bog-bashing. Still, as I had said to Jack earlier in the day, it got me out of the house, and there are always worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.
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Strava activity: Roon the Fruin | Strava
