Walkhighlands

A few weeks ago I came up with a lockdown induced idea to climb to the highest point in every Scottish Council Area within the year. The only problem is that the lockdown is still in effect so I cant travel out with North Ayrshire or at least couldn't until the 5th of April when new rules were implemented meaning you can travel 5miles outwith your council area as long as its for exercise. This opened up 3 potential hills for me to complete: Goatfell (North Ayrshire), The Hill of Stake (Renfrewshire) and Creuch Hill (Inverclyde) all of which are within the 5-mile border-radius. The only question now was to decide which to complete first, I opted to leave Goatfell for later on in the summer until nice weather and take a week off a make an entire week of exploring Arran and its hills. That left only Creuch Hill and the Hill of Stake, of which I opted to go for Creuch hill.

Link to a map containing all the highest points and those that I've done:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=10AdI35qWx1da_QlGtO_rrNmzygu8LyLP&usp=sharing

Having done research beforehand on a possible route up the hill, I had made a gpsx route using the OS Maps website, the route was supposed to follow landrover tracks about a third of the way up the hill, but alas they were practically non-existent when I got there. This left me having to wade through the swampy moorland getting covered in mud in the process.

Having been to Clyde Muirshiel Park many times before and always being sorta disappointed with the views from the inland hills, I wasn't expecting much from this small hill sitting at only 441metes tall but once I got to the summit I was pleasantly surprised with near panoramic views in every direction bar SW.


The Isle of Arran


Loch Thom, the River Clyde and The Highlands


More Highlands


And lastly and artsy smartsy black and white photograph of Arran

The track you were looking for was rather obliterated by works to remove pylons from Duchal Moor back in November unfortunately. If it's any consolation it wasn't great to start with, Creuch Hill has always been one for aficionados of a good bog stomp. Cracking views on a good day mind.

WeeHills wrote:The track you were looking for was rather obliterated by works to remove pylons from Duchal Moor back in November unfortunately. If it's any consolation it wasn't great to start with, Creuch Hill has always been one for aficionados of a good bog stomp. Cracking views on a good day mind.

That makes a lot of sense, when I was looking at the route on my gps, I did see the OS maps still had those power lines on it and was very confused when they weren't there.

Nice work and some marvellous shots! I too am on a Scottish council tops mission and am really not far off now. Creuch Hill was a great little hill (and was my local top) - fortunately the track I used was still there when I went up - but it was a hell of a slog from Hill of Stake.

iangpark wrote:Nice work and some marvellous shots! I too am on a Scottish council tops mission and am really not far off now. Creuch Hill was a great little hill (and was my local top) - fortunately the track I used was still there when I went up - but it was a hell of a slog from Hill of Stake.

Thanks.

I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one mental enough to come up with the idea of climbing all the council tops. I did have a look online to see if anyone had done it before but couldn't find any public record of it.

I've got the Hill of Stake planned out for Friday so I'm hoping it stays dryish until then so that it's not a complete swamp.