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Schiehallion at last
Having walked many hills and mountains within spitting distance of Glasgow I have a catalogue of photographs of Schiehallon from a distance. Well.. Time to put that right. I had a couple of days off and with a wary eye on the weather I decided today was the day to tackle that ever elusive Shiehallion.
Setting off at 07:00 from Glasgow I drove through the beautiful Stirlingshire and Perthshire countryside to arrive at Braes of Foss around 09:00. The car park was quiet with only one other walker waiting forlornly for his mate. I set off at a steady pace in quite clear and sunny weather over what is a very well maintained and laid out path. Congratulations to the John Muir Trust for their good work.
The Mountain was itself a little disappointing in its aspect as I have been used to viewing it from a great distance to the West where it is very distinctive.
I hoped that this was the top I could see from the car park, but no such luck. Cameron McNeish describes a narrowing summit ridge, and this just looks like a couple of million tonnes of aggregate.
The path couldn’t be better on the lower slopes and sometimes I wondered if I was strolling along Sauchiehall Street, especially on the way home at lunchtime when the afternoon trekkers were out. Still, I had the morning and the hillside to myself to begin with.
View back towards the car park (that’s mine second from the right by the way).
I was surprised to meet another young couple on their way back down the hill at around 10am, my, they must have had an early start!
Once off the laid path the route is still clear enough and cuts its way backwards and forwards through a gravelly surface, much like walking on the beach without the rolling waves, albeit the wind was trying to provide a good substitute.
I was being tailed by another lone walker who I thought was the same guy I had exchanged pleasantries with in the car park, but at this range I couldn’t be sure. It turned out, after we met about 15 minutes from the top that it was. I assume that his mate didn’t turn up.
We had a good we chat on the last few hundred yards to the top with one canny eye on the boulder strewn hilltop. We joked that after putting in all the effort on the lower slopes, the least the John Muir Trust could have done was make the final ascent a bit easier. Shame on us!
Still. Top achieved and a couple of happy campers took a very quick photo and legged it for the comfort of the lower slopes. I’ll tell you. No matter how nice a day it is at ground level, when you are up on top that wind is bitter cold. I had made the schoolboy error of not bringing winter hat and gloves and soup and sandwiches for lunch. We modern men only eat salad nowadays, Doh! Give me vegetable broth and a couple of outsiders with cheese and pickle any day.
Anyway, me and my new friend beat a hasty retreat from the top and as I’d brought the stove with me I intended to brew up on the upper slopes and enjoy the scenery. As it transpired it was absolutely Baltic so in the interest of self preservation I listened to his words of wisdom, “I’m having my pieces back at the car, it’s bloody freezin’ up here”
So, a short while later I was brewing up from the comfort of my car chuckling at the less knowledgeable trekkers setting out for a stroll up the hills on a sunny day. I hope they had their winter woollies with them.