Salomon Boots 1 - Peat Hags 0

[Fife Flyer]

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One of the drawbacks of being retired is you have to make the most of decent weather windows and today looked like being one of those days When the forecast shows hours of sunshine it would be foolish to stay indoors, especially in the winter months
I was planning just to walk in the morning so my options were a wee bit limited
I had one Donald in the Ochils that was kind of standing out on my map so my mind was made up, Blairdenon Hill it was.
The next problem was which way to tackle the target hill from, to date there is no WH route to download, so I had to resort to studying a map The shortest drive would involve starting from the south, so next it was time to check previous walk reports to find a route and get a rough idea how long it would take.
The majority of the reports are from the north and it does look fairly easy, but the report I would base my day on was U059361, so a big thanks to you
I set off from Fife at 7.45 and arrived in Alva at 8.20, I wasn't sure where to park as I didn't know where the car park for the Alva Glen, I ended up parking on Strude Street which happened to be very close to the start of the walk More luck than judgement
Off we set, the path started by going round the back of the farm and heading uphill, it is not long before you go through the first of six gates and a stye. The path is initially a dirt one and it joins up with a proper stone track that starts at the farm.

The start of the ascent

HMP Glen Ochil (unless it has been renamed)

The zig-zag path uphill

Looking back down Glen Alva

Kincardine & Clackmannanshire Bridges - look quite close!

Looking back

Looking back again

The track zig-zags nice and steeply uphill and height is gained easily and quickly with Alva Glen on the right hand side.
I followed the track uphill, Bengengie Hill was on the left, the track turned into a grassy quad bike track, this track went left but I could see my destination straight ahead and made the executive decision to take the direct route

Blairdenon Hill is the rounded bump in the distance

Bogginess ahead, with the shadow of a giant

Time to test the boots

Bengengie Hill

The one slight problem with the direct route is that the terrain involves much bogginess and peat hags, I had a few of things in my favour, my new(ish) boots (Salomon), a nice crisp frost and by the looks of it not too much rain recently
Off I set picking my way as best as I could, using my poles to check the depth of the mud/water and my boots passed with flying colours in both directions It was hard going, I could see a path in the distance but as is usual it didn't seem to be getting any closer
Eventually the path was reached and it was then an easy walk to the summit of Blairdenon Hill. The summit is not what you would describe as spectacular, in fact if there weren't a couple of stones there you could easily walk past it The summit was reached in 1hr 45mins.

The small pile of stones - otherwise known as the summit

The views to the north were superb, unfortunately the same can't be said for the views to the west and north east, if you like windfarms then you would be a happy walker

One of our favourite sights

The snow covered hills to the north

Looking across to Auchterader

The view to the NE

I contemplated trying to avoid the squelchy bit on the way back but I wasn't sure how far the detour would be, so I decided to return the same way
Met a couple of solo walkers on the way down along with a mountain cyclist who was actually cycling uphill
Arrived back at the car just before midday, would have liked to have taken more photo's south but the sun was kind of in the way and we don't say that too often
Very enjoyable walk, even though the summit was a non event
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[The Rodmiester]

Nice one Martin, I really enjoyed the Ochils, had never been up them until last year Nice for the Winter!

[martin.h]

Hi Martin, nice report and some great photo's of the hills in an area we should be familiar with, I say that because our daughter spent four years at Stirling University and we did'nt spend any time in the Ochils (except for Dumyat), might have to investigate those hills now, mmmmm! more choices, crumbs, we are going to be busy.