Wallace's Stone , Glentye Hill , Mickle Corum

Decided to explore from the Dunblane side and parked the car down from the Sheriffmuir Inn and walked along the Balckford Road for a few hundred yards before following a fence line in to Wallace's Stone and onwards to Glentye Hill. This is the view of Glentye Hill on the left with Muckle Corum behind it. Snow still lying on the ground even though it is mid April

Looking back down towards the Sheriffmuir Inn with the hills seperated by Glen Tye valley

Top of Muckle Corum looking down towards Blackford - decided to follow the fence line down towards Little Corum

Decided to leave Little Corum for another day and loop round to pick up Black Hill as I returned to the road. Black Hill sits to the left of this small wooded area

Decided to have some fun in the snow on the way down and and as I walked through found myself up to my waist as the snow was covering a large chasm - a gentle reminder of the danger of snow hiding unseen dangers!

Once I left the woodland I walked all the way round the Black Hill without finding a way over the barbed wire fence - took a picture of it but lost the desire to get up - thats for another day too!

Not as picturesque as the Hillfoots side but got sight of Blairdenon when I was at the top of Mickle Corum and I'll be back to tackle this one day soon

13th April 2013 : Brown Hill , Loss Hill and Ashentrool

Two weeks of snow and a week in Tenerife have kept me away from the Ochils for a while so when Ian asked if I fancied a quick sortie to the Ochils on Saturday I was more than happy to oblige, We parked up on the Sheriffmuir Road and walked in on the path past Lossburn Reservoir . Dumyat was on our right and we decided to climb to the left up to Brown Hill and work our way back to the road via Loss Hill and then Ashentrool. As we climbed up to the top of Brown Hill this is the view of the reservoir looking down the hill

We reached the top and Ian poses with the imaginary flag being planted on the peak

As we walk along the ridge we get another perspective of Dumyat which I haven't seen before. For one wee hill its amazing how it can be seen in so many different ways. I met a woman on holiday who thought if you had seen one hill you had seen them all - absolutely untrue

Finally , another view of the reservoir as we work along the ridge

30th March - Dumyat

Kim and Will decided it would be good to get Oscar ( the dog) out in to the hills and let him off the leash to run around. Dumyat was the answer and so we took a quick run up on the Saturday afternoon. Still signs of the snow from the previous fortnight but Oscar wasn't tempted. Pictures of the proud mummy and daddy for the history book

Myreton Hill , Craig Elsie , Mid Cairn , Bengengie & Colsnaur Hill

Set out for the second time to climb Blairdenon Hill and for the second time had to reconsider the strategy as it was just a step too far. On the way did this circular route and climbed 5 hills and , according to Ian's app we burned 2,800 calories and walked 8.5 miles and all in blazing sunshine - a great day.

We set out from Menstrie to climb Myreton Hill and then move in to the rest of the hills ( took a good 10 mins to find the right place to start). Like many of the starts in the Ochils we set off on a road which zig zagged up in to the hills. On the way there were great views of Dumyat and as I had climbed it last week I took this photo to show the hill from the other side.

We walked up the road until a gate where the path to Myreton turns right at a small fence post. This was a fairly easy climb and we soon reached the top which is fairly unexciting. This picture shows Ian contemplating the next stage which involved descending to the bottom of the valley and then climbing up again - easy when you are the top but much more of a challenge when you have dropped to the bottom and the only way is up!

Found the remains of a sheep - skull only - and couldn't resist a quick pose on the way!

On the journey down we wandered slightly off course - map and directions taking us to a small reservoir which we couldn't see . Just as Ian was beginning to think we had gone completely off course it materialised before our eyes and we knew we were on the right course. I had been keeping to a slightly higher path but the photo gives you a sense of the climb on the other side which was a "lung buster"

Once we had conquered the steep slope , which came with no path , we reached Craig Elsie and were on the ridge - all plain sailing from now on! Stretching out behind me in this photo are Mid Cairn and Bengengie. I had done this ridge recently , climbing up from Alva Glen - the map notes say this ridge is not climbed frequently and I now know this is because there is no easy way to get on to it! When you do , however , the views are great.

At Bengengie , we crossed over the moss to pick up the beginning of Colsnaur Hill and effectively double back on ourselves . This view shows the ridge from the walk up Colsnaur with Bengengie (left) to Craig Elsie (right)

 We now followed the wall which is in the foreground all the way to the top of Colsnaur which stretched out in front of us in an inviting way

At the top , we scrambled down the hill to pick up the path (and gate) where we had turned for Myreton and then followed it back down to Menstrie.

All in all , an excellent walk - I think I'll try Blairdenon from Sherifmuir to see if it any easier to get there!

Castle Law & Dumyat

Sun splitting the sky and it was the kind of day I couldn't stay in the house so after lunch I took a quick run to Bridge of Allan with the intention of climbing Castle Law and Dumyat. In all the times I have climbed Dumyat I have always kept to the path and never deviated to go up the smaller hill of Castle Law so didn't really know where it was. Initially I climbed the small hill which is on the Dumyat path from the university and this picture of Wallace Monument was taken from it                        

Continued up the path to Dumyat and at the top met an old worthy sitting in the shade who had already climbed all the Ochil hills. Because the weather was so clear he named the hills we could see including ( from left to right as I looked) Ben Lomond , The Cobbler , Ben Ledi , Ben Lawyers , Stuc a croine. I have climbed all of these hills but hadn't realised you could see them all from the top of Dumyat. The photo is not very clear and the hills actually look like clouds

At the top of Dumyat I got a clear picture of Castle Law and realised I had not actually climbed it so I headed over and did it on the way home.

Glenquey Hill/ Innerdownie / Bentie Knowe / Whitewisp Hill

After a week of horrendous weather I am joined by Ian and Jonathan on an absolutely picture perfect Saturday. Here they are at the base of Glenquey Hill after we had parked the car at the Tormaukin Hotel 

Once we got to the top of Glenquey Hill we got our first sight of Innerdownie stretching ahead of us and at this stage we were pretty clear of snow although wouldn't be long before that changed

On the way to the top we were able to follow in the tracks of what looked like a quad bike which had gone before us                                                                                      

The benefit of going with others is that you can compile photographic evidence so for the record this is me at the top of Innerdownie     

                                     

Having conquered Innerdownie the plan was to head on to Bentie Knowe to complete the hat-trick but to be fair it was hard to recognise when we had done it so this is us looking back with , I think , with Bentie Knowe in the background. By this time we were walking in in relatively deep snow but with the sun blazing overhead conditions were great. 

                           

As we walked along the ridge we had a clear view of Glenquey Reservoir down below and we would eventually walk back alongside it on the way back to the car      

We had made pretty good progress by this point so we pressed on towards Whitewisp Hill and here are Jonathon and Ian pictured at the top with Tarmangie Hill pictured in the background 

From the top we had a good view of King's Seat Hill which I had done last month and this is it

We walked down off Whitewisp without sticking to any real path (and the boys tracking overhead planes on their I phones) to join the Dollar to Glendevon path and walked the final 5 miles back to the Hotel where we stopped for an excellent bowl of soup. All in all a good wee walk which may even have inspired the boys to join me again

 A few days later Jonathan presented me with the challenge of uploading a couple of his photos on to the blog and to my surprise this was a lot easier than I thought. These are taken at the top of Innerdownie as we stopped to admire the view - blue sky was amazing

The Nebit & The Growls

Snow widespread in the UK but all clear in Stirling although Ochils have a coating so a perfect day to take a walk. Took car to Alva Glen and cut across to Silverburn and walked in to the valley . I always like this view of the waterfall just as you leave the car park. No snow here but it wasn't long before I was in it.    

                        

This is the view of Craighorn as I walked along the west side of Ben Ever. As I got deeper in to the valley the cloud descended and it began to look as if I wouldn't get a view from the top so I turned around and decided instead to climb The Nebit which was at the back of me and bathed in sunshine. One of the benefits of being retired - I can just go back another day !     

As I headed back down towards The Nebit this is the view of Craig Elsie and Mid Cairn which I had climbed earlier but not taken any photos          

       

This is the view of The Nebit as I headed back down - felt like one of the wise men following the light!

This is me looking back up the valley ( from whence I had come) from the top of The Nebit with Craighorn on the left and Ben Ever on the right       

                                                                  

At the top the skies cleared and there was clear blue sky all around with absolutely stunning views - would have probably been ok heading for Ben Buck but at the top of Nebit took a call from Carol looking for me to pick her up from work so everything turned out ok