The wrong Lomond

[nigheandonn]

The way things worked out this summer, there was a grand total of three free days between mid-June and late August that I could use for walking, and I was guarding them carefully - the first one had been marked for a long time for Ben Lomond. And then there was a crazy week, and a lot of running around, and when I was supposed to be getting up at 4.30 on Saturday morning it was surprisingly light, and I was surprisingly rested, and suddenly it turned out to be almost 7am instead.

I worked out that if I hurried I might still make the boat from Luss rather than Tarbet - but then the bus to Glasgow was full of people going to the Commonwealth games, so I slunk back home to plot some more - I was going to Culter Fell, no I wasn't, I was going to Peebles and Dun Rig, no I wasn't - and then I remembered that I'd had my eye on the Lomond Hills, and the coincidence of names was too good to pass up.

It was a nice adventurous journey - Ladybank by train, and a wandering bus journey through little Fife places always with a scattering of nice old buildings, until I came to Falkland.

I pottered round a bit, but I had been there before, so it wasn't too long before I was heading through the back of the town, past an incongruous factory, and onto the path through the woods, where I paused for lunch.

Steps through the woods

It was a very warm day, and the pull uphill through the woods was hard hard work. Eventually I came out above the woods and started slanting up the hillside, quite glad now that I wasn't on a bigger hill. There were a few other people about, but not all that many.

Open hillside

Falkland from above

It was a very hazy day, which was a shame - part of the reason I'd been attracted to the Lomond Hills was the variety of places you could see them from, but now I could hardly see anywhere.

Uphill

Hazy views

The summit was quite busy, but I found my own spot, and sat looking out. One nice thing about the Lomond Hills is the openness - because they're higher round the edges and lower in the middle, the whole range is laid out to view,

East Lomond Hill summit

The weather forecast when I started had been for light showers about 4, but although it had said nothing about Big Black Clouds coming from the west at half past 2, they were gathering anyway, and moving steadily towards me. I thought I might make it over to West Lomond without getting wet, but I was sure I wouldn't make it back again.

In the end I decided that having got that far I better go for it, but not very far down I sat down to try to work out if the rumbly noises in the distance like an unloading lorry might actually be thunder - inconclusive, but I did discover that the grass was short and dry enough that I could slide down the hill instead - a much easier way of descending than on my feet. But then it was definitely getting thundery, and I decided that the best thing to do was to try to cut back round the hillside to the Falkland path.

West Lomond Hill and looming clouds

Part way round the vague path ran out and I met a wall, and I was also starting to worry about being in the trees when the lightning came - and then I saw two people below clearly walking along a track, although the track wasn't obvious anywhere they weren't, so I cut down to meet it. I knew that there was a road into the hills, and guessed that the track would meet it, and although I didn't know where it would come out, it had to go somewhere.

Looking ahead, the sky was still clear and bright, but behind it was getting darker and darker, and as the first drops of rain fell the wind was obviously swinging round.

The storm

Deer

The rain came on properly as I got to the car park, but as I was walking down the road in the downpour two ladies stopped and gave me a lift back to Falkland and the pub, where I dried off again.

So not all that exciting as a hill walk, but the elemental experience of watching the storm gather from a distance was pretty amazing - if very wet in the end!

[Sgurr]

One of my local hills, and what's more, we only just went up it your way this year We generally park in the car park between the two, or worse still, drive right up to the radio mast, (even shorter for East Lomond) or climb the West Lomond from the north, or go a bit further along and combine West Lomond with Bishop's Hill. Yours is a cracking way up, and you seem to have found much the same way down as we did, though somehow missing the path. I hope the other days were put to equally good use.