Part 5 27-29 May Based near Dollar, east of Stirling The LAST instalment (phew!)
After a few more Pictish stones we drove past Grantown-on-Spey and parked in an old quarry at the end of the public road in Glenbeg. We then followed the road past some houses and through a wood to the open moorland. The paths took us past the grouse butts and up to the trig point by a straggly lone tree and a rather sharp fence corner.
GM/CS-112 Beinn Mhor where M0JLA quickly decided to look for a warmer spot …
which he soon found and was quite busy as the hill had only been activated 3 times before.
As my chosen spot was considerably colder I wandered off after getting 5 2m contacts and 3 on 70cm but with little hope of getting a 4th after calling for over an hour. I could tell that MM0EFI was indeed out of range by now!
A short wander on the flattish summit took me to a lochan and views of distant snow patches on the skyline.
We left the hill with a couple of mysteries that we haven’t yet resolved:
a) As mentioned before in the first of my posts, I had a contact with GM7PBB/P John who was using a Baofeng while looking at the Albert Memorial (pyramid) in Balmoral the other side of the Cairngorms. The 2m contact (not possible on 70cm!) was a very intermittent 51 at my end and he replied with 51. In snatches I checked where he was as I couldn’t believe that we were talking despite the formidable obstacles covered in cloud between us. There was no fading it was 51 or nothing and I don’t believe it was aircraft bounce as it went on for too long - any credible theories welcomed please…
b) What is the yellow flower that was fairly common on the open moorland and we had first identified as gorse but quickly realised it wasn’t. We saw it nowhere else on our trip - or at any other time on the hills.
It looked like a rather straggly shrub amongst the heather
Although the flowers are rather similar to broom the two front runners seem to be:
Petty Whin (Genista anglica) and Hairy Greenweed (Genista pilosa) Neither of them seem to fit our pictures although the first is more widespread and the latter is only know from the Lizard in Cornwall (!) but this was the plant chosen by a friend’s flower identifier on her phone. Could anyone reading this please settle the argument or come up with another suggestion.
The next day we had a chance to visit a couple of summits which we had omitted when staying nearby some years ago.
GM/SS-216 Dumyat summit featuring the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Memorial badge and also a stone cairn and beacon. We were soon joined by Rob GM3YTS who came up the hill to say hello, tell us how to pronounce Dumyat (D’m-eye-at, or something similar!)
and demonstrate how his 2m dipole folds up and can be carried within his rucksack rather than on the outside like mine.
Within 45 mins I had 19 contacts (9 on 70cm) including a s2s with MM3WJZ Ian on Merrick GMS/SS-028 119km but we didn’t want to linger as we had another activation planned and the summit was getting very busy. We had been able to grab a parking space close to the start of the path and knew our space would quickly be filled when we left (it was) but we had fingers crossed that we didn’t meet anyone on the steep, winding and narrow road down to Airthrey (we didn’t).
There was then a longish drive east along below the Ochil hills (see tomorrow!) on the A91 to the Yetts of Muckhart and a left turn up Glen Dunning to the forest car park for Innerdouny Hill. We had avoided this hill on previous visits as it looked a long slog along forest roads (it was) and we hadn’t been sure which route actually led to the summit which was apparently clear of trees – if you could find it! This discussion passed the time as we traipsed past more and yet more trees, started our second descent. We then thought we had found the correct path to the right which would lead us down to the Back Burn and up beside another burn to the vital wall up to the summit. It didn’t and the path dwindled to almost nothing so it was the trek back up to the track, use it to cross the burn and then decide how to attack the newly felled Burnt Hill. I decided to use a faint grassy ride and hope things would improve (they did) and the wall was found and followed round the hill and down through the felling to the where it met another wall (which led almost to the summit)
and there was a clear strip beside it up to the summit – what a relief.
There was even some clubmoss growing on the wall to add to the interest.
M0JLA soon appeared as he had been waiting to see if this route went through and, thanks to our handies, I could give him details of my waypoints so he could join me. (Here follows a lengthy advert for the use of 2m fm on handies when 2 activators are using different routes (eg swapping summits) or just choosing different paths up a hill when the mist rolls in. I wouldn’t feel safe on some of our activations if I wasn’t able to contact Rod at almost any time. The only times this safety has been illusory has been when/if the radio stops working or, more likely, I drop it (on a lowly SW hill and someone walked off with it before deciding to return it as I was obviously searching hard) or when I put it down (on a summit I’d cycled to) to take a photo and forgot to pick it up until I reached the summit - doh!) Where was I?
GM/SS-169 Innerdouny Hill the view from the summit over (presumably) to Kinross and Loch Leven with Bishop Hill (GM/SS-187 which is still on the ‘to do’ list).
I stayed close to the trig but, once again,
M0JLA was installed in a comfy spot with some shelter from the trees below
I was amazed to find I’d got 17 contacts (7 on 70cm) within 40 mins from this lowly summit. I was obviously not used to being within reach of centres of population like Edinburgh and Perth but it was heartening to find that it was worth the effort of finding a route up this rather awkward hill. On our way down it was obvious that there was a path up beside the wall from the NE which would have been considerably easier but would have added another 1km or so to the track walk in each direction – but no problem if on a bike!
Monday, 20 May was our last Scottish walking day and the sun shone yet again so it had to be that steep ascent to Ben Cleugh, the top of the Ochil hills, which we had glimpsed the previous day. We parked with no difficulty in Tillicoultry
and Rod was soon on his way up to the rapidly ascending path.
and the houses below quickly became smaller
but he was still well ahead!
We had been warned that the direct route over The Law was very steep and had planned to fork right and approach the summit over Andrew Gannel Hill but gradually realised that we must have missed the turn as the Mill Glen was getting narrower.
We soon had to descend sharply to cross the Gannel burn.
I had some difficulty getting down and up the rock each side of the crossing but we went very slowly (it was hot) up the slope and, after a rest on The Law, we ambled along the path to
GM/SS-059 Ben Cleuch 721m which was obviously popular with cyclists (who had used different routes!)
As usual on a popular summit, I chose to set up some way from the trig and but obviously was not at my brightest as, when the wind veered, everything went rather quiet!
Despite the rather hot conditions we decided to have a leisurely stay so it was 21 contacts (8 on 70cm) in 70 mins including MI0VFC Rob on Slieve Mealbeg GI/MM-005 264km (my longest s2s this year so far!) and GM7FIE Ian on Dumyat GM/SS-216 7km (a complete!!) and also MMA75GJ Ali at Queensferry who was over from Qatar with a guest callsign, apparently.
It was a long, but gentle, walk down the Andrew Gannel Hill route
with time to look over the narrow glen we had walked up but
we knew we soon had to descend rapidly and re-join our upward path. We then solved the mystery of how we’d miss the fork as we joined just after a bench above the path. We hadn’t realised, on the way up, that the path up to the bench went on behind it and up the ‘gentle’ way. Oh well, I won’t say ‘next time…’ as I’m sure we won’t be up this one again as it was about 700m of ascent in less than 4km – a bit steep for us!
This was then the end of our Scottish 3 week ‘expedition’ (it was certainly no holiday in the relaxing sense) but we had a wonderful time thanks to the mainly good weather but there has turned out to be an unfortunate souvenir from the trip, possibly exacerbated by the long hot drive over the following 2 days. Some six weeks later I am still having leg/hip muscle problems and have been unable to get out on the hills or even to garden comfortably ever since. I am hoping a GP physio will have some answers for me in a few days time. I did get up Seager Hill as a test the other day but was not encouraged to venture further. There is a silver lining for anyone who has lasted to the end of this marathon account – it will be some time before you will have to endure another of these multi-day accounts, from me, anyway!
73 Viki M6BWA
