Hudderstone. . . apparently

[thepigguy]

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Friday night party-goers stumbled past me in various states of intoxication, but mostly still jovial, as I waited at the airport bus stop near Bristol Temple Meads station at 4.30am on the Saturday. Eight hours later it could hardly have been more different. I was totally alone, heading out to the hills where Lanarkshire and the Borders meet.

Arriving in Edinburgh at about 8am, I spent the morning helping my son out with some deliveries around Leith for his business before being released for the afternoon with instructions to bring the car back in one piece.

Sadly, the morning's activity had given time for banks of low cloud and some drizzle to blow across the hills east of the M74 and any grand plans I might have had for a trip to the Moffat Hills, for example, were shelved for a simple single Donald.

The SMC book describes Hudderstone as an outlier, while Walkhighlands throws it in as part of a good-sized circuit including Culter Fell which is what virtually everyone seems to do. I'm not sure I have the legs for the bigger rounds, so I'm happy to pick off baggable hills in their ones and twos, so this time I stuck to the small circuit.

Parking at Culter Allers (there's no parking further down the glen past Birthwood) I set off along the road and what was to turn out to be the most pleasant part of the walk. It's a lovely spot with the hills crowding in on either side and the gill running alongside for company.

Past Birthwood into the valley

House at Windgill

After a mile I turned left onto the track uphill towards the plantation on Cowgill Rig, which I could spot not too far off. Sadly there wasn't much else to see further up as the clouds swirled in.

Track up Cowgill Rig

There's the first of a couple of locked gates a couple of hundred yards up, but the fence is easy enough to step over and it's easy going up to the plantation with the views looking back improving all the time.

Gate locked, presumably to deter vehicles and bikes

Looking back down Cowgill Rig, the last decent view for a while

Into the mirk

The path levels off and, with no views either side, I just got on with it, turning off the main track and heading towards the top of Hudderstone, stopping off to visit the "pile of stones" marked on the OS map.

Top of Hudderstone - terrific!

One consolation to being stuck in a cloud was that I couldn't see the huge number of windmills to the south and east. More are on the way to cover Gathersnow Hill and elsewhere, leaving Culter Fell an oasis in a landscape dominated by windfarms. The local community is holding a consultation.

After the top of Hudderstone I considered heading back the same way, but thought to complete the SMC circuit instead. It was a navigation exercise as I left the path and made my way over variable ground to Woodycleuch Dod, down and up to Ward Law before dropping back out of the cloud across the fields towards the bridge near Windgill.

Back down in the glen again

Community Council notice regarding the proposed new wind farms