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Fences and plenty of them

Fences and plenty of them


Postby Fife Flyer » Mon Mar 01, 2021 10:00 pm

Date walked: 27/02/2021

Time taken: 6.7 hours

Distance: 23.45 km

Ascent: 1028m

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Lockdown still in force and looks like continuing right through March, this may assist in our mission to conquer all the Tumps in the Kingdom, all 100+ of them. With the daylight hours increasing it means in theory we can visit more hills, however our fitness is miles off what we would like. We both found yesterday's outing tough and we only ascended a shade over 1000m. Having said that we do use plenty of mental and physical energy especially climbing over fences. Fences and gorse have been a common theme with the Tumps, gorse has meant the odd detour to reach a summit and it is thriving in Fife. Fences like with the bigger hills vary in construction and height. Luckily deer fences haven't really been a problem, however the smaller fences have seen us clocking up extra kilometres trying to find a safe and easier spot to get to the other side. Barbed wire is very common and the majority of fences have at least 2 layers which is very unfriendly and sometimes there even 2 fences. Another addition is electric fences, which I can understand for livestock. Of course you always have to assume the fence is live and to date I have only had one shock and it certainly was a shock.
The plan for the day was another 8am meet and if we felt OK we could add the trio including Prospect Hill which would make it 10 for the day. I felt so much better one week after my vaccination.
The hills I 'hand picked' meant we were able to cut down the amount of driving between hills. The plan was to link the first group of 4 together then Lindores Hill on it's own, the a duo finishing off with a trio.


Dunbog Hill, 216m, 405m of ascent, 10.7km, 2hrs 50mins

We parked on the banks of Lindores Loch and parking spaces are in very short supply.

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Lindores Loch looking lovely

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A different angle

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The way ahead

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Good track initially

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Low level look westish

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Looking back as we leave the track

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The way ahead, bit of grassy ascending

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Lindores Loch in the distance

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Here you are Parminder

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Someone has taken a chunk out of the trig

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Close up shot

That was Dunbog our high point for the day, the walk to our next summit wouldn't take very long and was without obstacles.

Balmeadow Hill, 196m

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Not sure if the puddle is always there or just a result of the snow and recent rain?

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Luckily we didn't have to climb this gate

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Typical farm buildings

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Looking back, the dark green vegetation is our unfriendly gorse - which wasn't a problem for us

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A bit of going up, note the gorse trying to attack us

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The gap in the gorse is now very obvious

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We are now on the large rounded summit area of Balmeadow

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Looking eastish towards Mount Hill from the tussocky grassy summit

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Leaving Balmeadow and heading towards the Cunnoquhies, east is in the woods on the left, west is on the far right where the mast is

Cunnoquhie East Hill, 151m

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The summit of Cunnoquhie east is in there, you can imagine how good the views are going to be

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Looking back

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About to enter into the darkness, so far the jungle warfare has been pretty tame

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Another style of fence, chicken wire on the lower part

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Summit area of Cunnoquhie east

Now it is onto final hill of this foursome.

Cunnoquhie West Hill, 199m

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Out of the forest now and looking back

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Looking back, the fence wasn't on our route

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Someone had been through the fence before us, we managed to squeeze through

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George surveying a bit of going up in front of us

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Dead bracken which is the best time to encounter it, looking across to Balmeadow

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Heading downhill, to guess what? Another fence

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This was a first for us, a "cat flap" in a deer fence, was a tight squeeze but doable

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Looking back again

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Another first, anyone any idea what this is? We managed to scramble elegantly over it, note the barbed wire fence either side

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Looking back down on the 'contraption'

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Looking east from the summit of Cunnoquhie West

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Descending off Cunnoquhie west

Now it is a short drive towards Newburgh to tackle our next hill.

Lindores Hill, 178m, 110m of ascent, 1.75km, 45mins

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We parked up a track off the main road

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The way ahead, once past the field on the left we turned left and headed uphill

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A bit of height gained and looking towards Newburgh, Clatchard Craig Quarry can be seen in the distance

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The summit is where the mast is, however we have the usual problem before we reach it - pick your way through gorse

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Looking NE towards Dundee and our next hills

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The mast on the summit, Lindores Loch in the distance

Now it was time to move onto our next hills, into Newburgh and turn right onto an unclassified road, past what looks like a new distillery.

Glenduckie Hill, 218m, 231m of ascent, 4.4km, 1hr 20mins

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Low level look across the Tay, Ballinbreich Castle on this side of the Tay

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Ballinbreich Castle zoomed

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Dundee zoomed

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Plenty of poly tunnels on the other side of the Tay

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We opted to stay to the left of the fence as we would be turning left uphill soon

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Heading uphill now, small silver birch plantation

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Heading up to top of the slope before heading into the forest

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Looking back down and across to Higham Hill on the other side

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One last look at the Tay before we become engulfed in the forest

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Easy forest stuff for us

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First time we have come across Rhododendron

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Not far to the summit of Glenduckie Hill

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The limited view from the summit of Glenduckie Hill

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A few tracks in Glenduckie forest, all going in the wrong direction for us

Now it was downhill before the slight ascent up Higham Hill.

Higham Hill, 155m

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Looking back across to our route up Glenduckie - the obvious gap in the trees

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This bit of the approach to Higham is part of the "Fife Coastal Path", nice friendly fences on either side

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Quite a few big stanes dotted around

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Looking west down the Tay towards Perth

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The summit stane on Higham Hill, from the ascent up Glenduckie we thought it was a trig - certainly trig shaped

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Quite a big stone

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Glenduckie Hill

Out of the group of hills we tackled Glenduckie was probably the star of the show. Now it was another short drive to Luthrie where we would start our final trio.

Prospect Hill, 188m. 282m of ascent, 6.6km, 1hr 55mins

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Plenty of local walks in the area

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Looking back

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A substantial new gate, that took a bit of brute force to open

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George posing, Prospect Hill is on the right

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Not far from the summit of Prospect Hill, at first we thought the mast was maybe higher - but it wasn't

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View eastish from the rounded summit of Prospect Hill

Now it was the 'challenging' walk across to the lovely named Whirly Kips.

[u]Whirly Kips[/u], 167m

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The view as we left Prospect Hill towards Norman's Law, Whirly Kips is the wee rounded lump on the left

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Mount Hill in the distance with the tower on the summit

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From now on I lost count of how many fences we encountered, as you can see they are anything but friendly

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Whirly Kips is up there

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Looking across to the dominant hill in the area Norman's Law from the insignificant summit of Whirly Kips

Now it was the long undulating walk to our final hill of the day Emily Hill.

Emily Hill, 154m

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We followed this track in roughly the direction we were planning to head, avoiding fences like the one on the left

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Plenty of money in this area, large land owners we guessed

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Looking east, we would be heading up to the left to avoid the house in the distance

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Large house being renovated

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Renovated house on the right, got their own wee pond

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Typical north Fife farmland

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Not far to the summit of Emily Hill, we opted to stay on the east side of 3 fences we encountered

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Norman's Law from the summit of Emily Hill

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The final and welcome descent back down into Luthrie

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Luthrie church

Really enjoyed the day and I think George did too. We are certainly clocking up the kilometres but the amount of ascending is a bit of a concern, especially when we are allowed to escape out of Fife. Having said that we are burning up extra mental and physical energy tackling the extra obstacles.
User avatar
Fife Flyer
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2642
Munros:272   Corbetts:58
Fionas:39   Donalds:89+33
Sub 2000:130   Hewitts:2
Islands:5
Joined: May 15, 2013
Location: Guess?

Re: Fences and plenty of them

Postby petectid » Sun Mar 07, 2021 10:51 pm

The wooden structure in the fence line looks like a cross country jump for equestrians.
petectid
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 13
Munros:23   Corbetts:7
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Sub 2000:1   Hewitts:76
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Joined: Jun 20, 2019
Location: Wester Ross

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