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I wouldn't normally post a brief walk like this, but nobody else has posted the route so I thought I would in case someone fancies a nice little rewarding walk
This was a unplanned outing, Mrs F was heading up to Dundee on a family visit so rather than stay indoors I decided to pick off a straggler of a Donald, that was red on my map surrounded by blue balloons
No getting up at silly o'clock as the drive is only an hour each way and I was guesstimating the walk would be a couple of hours. I opted to wait until all the workers would be sitting behind their desks in Edinburgh and left Fife about 9.30 and was all kitted up and walking at 10.45.
No parking to speak of
For obvious reasons the direct route I had planned isn't used very often as Chapelgill Hill is usually added onto the Culter Fell round and attacked from the west.
The initial part of the walk involved walking across a farmers field that has sheep roaming, easy going but if you don't want sheep and rabbit poo you have to pay attention
The destination
Autumnal colours
Interesting break
Once across the field there is a burn (Holms Water) to cross, on the map it looks like it shouldn't be a problem as it is a very fine thin blue line
However you can see from the photo's that it isn't one you can leap over unless you are a world class 'long jumper', so I had to wander along the bank until I came across a suitable spot
Wasn't expecting this
My crossing point, poles were vital for balancing on the slippy rock/grass
Looking back
The way up, glad the bracken was 'inactive'
One for the turbine fans, looking east
Looking down NE
This caught my eye, so had to zoom right in
Above shot just zoomed a wee bit
Looking back down
Not many hills where you can see your car all the time
Once the ascending starts it is pretty relentless and after about 200m it gets even harder as the grass and dead bracken changes into heather, which as regular walkers know is tough going up, but much easier going down
Looking NE towards Broughton
Entering the cloud
After almost 450m of ascending the summit cairn appears in the distance, unfortunately there was lots of low cloud formations drifting through on the brisk westerly wind and I got no views at all. I did continue west across the summit but still couldn't see anything
Chapelgill Hill summit
Little plaque near the summit
NE whilst descending
The descent was a scoosh and made even easier as the wind was behind me
I was back at the car and heading home after 90minutes
Really enjoyed the leg stretch and I do love this area
Next will be a couple more stragglers before the inevitable trips back down to Galloway. Only 14 Donalds left so the end is in sight
