Beware of Lamington in the times of Covid..

[gokirsten]

Since the lockdown announcement just before Christmas I've been plotting walks within the South Lanarkshire area to stay within guidelines. Luckily South Lanarkshire is a large area so there was (at the time) still quite a few hills within reach. It had also been snowing so I didn't want to try anything too difficult as I sadly do not own crampons (as yet).

Lamington Hill seemed like a perfect choice, a reasonably short drive and nothing too strenuous. We followed the walk report set out by Inca using his route and pictures to double check we were on the correct path. Although like he says "you'd be hard pushed to go wrong."

I had read a few walk reports before hand to get an idea of the route. I don't if it's because I was skimming, I didn't realise Lamington had two churches. The first when you are approaching South from Glasgow is Lamington Parish Church. This has a small car park which is where I would advise parking as the village itself is quite small. The second church is Holy Trinity Chapel which is where the walk actually begins. To get to the second church you need to walk along the main road which has no pavement so be careful.

On our way to Holy Trinity my Dad and myself were stopped by a local questioning whether we should be there or not. Unfortunately this occurred only a few hours before Nicola Sturgeon announced that harsher restrictions would be imposed on Scotland. This could have heightened the woman's annoyance. By the time our walk was finished, signs had been put up on the gates of the Chapel advising not to enter due to Covid. Anyway what I'm trying to say is while you may be sticking to guidelines, people from smaller places don't always take kindly to walkers passing through. So be mindful of this if Lamington is still accessible to you.

Onto the walk itself which was rather enjoyable. Theres a path just behind the Chapel which has a few signs guiding walkers in the right direction. Not difficult to see even in snowy conditions. Nothing was too tiring, I think every step takes a wee bit more effort in snow but on a bright clear day it would probably be a doddle. Theres a few forks in the track after what used to be the kennels but we stuck to the left track which was the one clearly heading upwards. Theres a few gates and stiles to pass through.Once through the final gate, just roughly follow the wall and you can see the hill from here.

Luckily a few people had already been through the snow allowing us to follow their path which is harder to make out when covered in white. At one point we did trudge through some undisturbed snow unnecessarily when we could have followed the path which veered off to the right slightly. On the way up I'd been roasting with all my layers but once we reached the cairn, the wind was pretty cold. The gloves were back on after a few pictures of course. Sadly we didn't see a lot of views at the top but on the way back down the sun was breaking through again so I got a glimpse of Tinto and some surrounding hills.

It was a great wee day on a hill and probably the last one for a few weeks anyway . I'll just need to keep consulting my many books on the hills and keep looking forward to my next adventures when times are better. Stay safe all!

Path at the start

Views

On the way up

Cloudy views

Chilly at the top!

Heading down

Footprints!

Tinto peeking out through the trees

Shot of the day!