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Health & Safety gone mad on Ben Cleuch

Health & Safety gone mad on Ben Cleuch


Postby BigP » Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:53 pm

Route description: Ben Cleuch circular

Fionas included on this walk: Ben Cleuch

Donalds included on this walk: Ben Cleuch

Date walked: 28/11/2011

Time taken: 3 hours

Distance: 13.2 km

Ascent: 1064m

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Parked the car at Mill Street, and started walking up Mill Glen, I did not get far before coming across a high fence right across the path, kindly installed by the council to prevent walking up the glen!! This is due to some "major damage" on the path, of which I failed to find!!
Anyway skirting the fence I made my way up the Glen, towards The Law,
From the Law I continued up towards Ben Cleuch, but half way decided to head to Andrew Gannel Hill to start with, strange name for a hill, which made me ask myself, who was Andrew Gannel??? Answers on a post card!

After reaching the summit of AGH, I tracked back to Ben Cleuch, heading into the wind, and boy what a wind! nearly blown off my feet a few times, which is hard to believe I know!! From Ben Cleuch, I headed down the ridge towards Ben Ever, and from there down on to the farm road up Silver Glen, I could not resist a quick jont up "The Nebit" prior to heading back to the car.

All in all a great little walk to blow the weekend cobwebs away!!
Attachments
Ben Cleuch email size 23.jpg
Ben Cleuch Summit
Ben Cleuch 12.jpg
Green man in the rock??
Ben Cleuch email size 42.jpg
Health & Safety Gone mad??
Ben Cleuch email size 44.jpg
BigP
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Re: Health & Safety gone mad on Ben Cleuch

Postby Dave Hewitt » Mon Nov 28, 2011 7:20 pm

It’s been closed off like that since Feb; before that there were advisory notices from the latter part of last year. It’s to do with the unstable rock buttress just beyond where the path overlooks the old quarry, and also the last high bridge – the one before the bridge at the foot of the Law – is said to be no longer as secure as the health/safety/council people would like. Whether either of these things are bad enough for a popular glen to be formally closed is questionable, but that’s the way of it just now. (I sneaked in from the top end a couple of months ago with an engineer friend to have a look at the bridge, and he just laughed at the idea that it was any less stable than say a year earlier.)

The reason it’s not being fixed in a hurry is, predictably, because of a lack of money. It’s dragging on badly – and anecdotally, speaking with people met on the hill, a steady and possibly increasing number of walkers are just ignoring the restriction and walking along the glen anyway – it’s easy enough to sneak round the side of the barrier in your photograph. Clearly people using the glen when it’s officially shut isn’t ideal, but the longer this goes on, the more likely that is to happen.

The dodgy bits of the glen should be repaired asap – because it’s an important local resource (both for hillwalkers and village dogwalkers), and also because there’s always a risk that someone using the glen illegally might have an accident.

Anyway, the official council closure notice for Path 61 (as it’s called by the council) is here:
http://www.clacksweb.org.uk/environment/corepathsplan/

and a piece I wrote about it for the CalMerc back in June is here:
http://tinyurl.com/6u2ax2u

I’ll likely chase some more quotes and write another CalMerc piece over the winter, assuming the situation stays as it is at present.

PS – Hope you enjoyed your day out. The Nebit is a fine little summit, especially good as a way back to the Hillfoots as it connects with the old path down the front slope above Alva – this misses out the track zigzags very neatly although can be hard to find if you don’t know where it starts.
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Re: Health & Safety gone mad on Ben Cleuch

Postby Mountainlove » Mon Nov 28, 2011 8:53 pm

Had to look that name up...

Andragannel is a hill which overlooks the Gannel Burn - from the Gaelic 'An Sruth Gainmheil' - the sandy bottomed burn -(Tillicoultry Glen) /OR the Gannel Burn and Andragannel might be named after a man who lost his life thereabouts about 1860, but many people dispute this.. I remember when this hill was not marked on the OS map. We called it Andragannel then. Nowadays it is marked on the OS map as Andrew Gannel Hill.

I reckon the galic An Sruth Gainmheil was made into..
An Sruth=Andrew
Gainmheil =Gannel
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Re: Health & Safety gone mad on Ben Cleuch

Postby nathan79 » Mon Nov 28, 2011 8:59 pm

The route through the glen is a lovely one. Pity it's closed but i can kind of see why. After a windy few days last April i came across this obstacle on my way up. I wouldn't have liked to be there when it came down

DSCF1094.JPG
Fallen tree.


Fingers crossed it opens again in the near future.
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Re: Health & Safety gone mad on Ben Cleuch

Postby BigP » Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:35 pm

[quote="Mountainlove"]Had to look that name up...

Good Day MountainLove, Thanks for the info, always intrigues me where some of these names come from!!

Paul
BigP
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Re: Health & Safety gone mad on Ben Cleuch

Postby BigP » Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:37 pm

[quote="nathan79"]

Good Day Nathan, I actually think I say the same tree in the river, the path was clear as a bell all the way up! Might be a different story after todays rain!!

Cheers Paul
BigP
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 13
Munros:122   Corbetts:11
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Sub 2000:14   Hewitts:1
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Joined: Oct 2, 2011
Location: Kippen, Stirlingshire.

Re: Health & Safety gone mad on Ben Cleuch

Postby BigP » Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:41 pm

[quote="Dave Hewitt"]

Good Day Dave,

Thanks for the info, good to get the full details, lets hope that they do something about it, as it was the first time I had been there and hope will not be the last!! Although I suspect it may be a little worse after todays rain!!

Cheers Paul
BigP
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Posts: 13
Munros:122   Corbetts:11
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Sub 2000:14   Hewitts:1
Wainwrights:1   
Joined: Oct 2, 2011
Location: Kippen, Stirlingshire.

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