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My 2nd visit to these hills on my quest to visit all the Donald's again, along with George and Parminder on their first round.
My last visit was 5 years ago and the landscape has certainly changed since then, mainly around Windy Standard and to the east of Blacklorg Hill.
I knew plotting a route would be a bit hit and miss as most maps are out of date.
The plan this time was to tackle them anti-clockwise so we would have a nice relaxing walk along a track to get our legs moving.
As with all hills in the SW, getting to them from the east is challenging.
We arrived at the marked car park just past Afton Filter Station at 8.30 and were soon on our way. The car park appears to be well used at weekends, I presume by dog walkers as we didn't see any other walkers all day.
Parking area
The way ahead for us - to Windy Standard
Sun about to rise over Afton Reservoir
Not much water leaving the reservoir
The dam, appears to be well kept
Not sure what that building is/was for
Tiny old building all bricked up
Closer shot of the dam
The way up the side of the dam
Not even a trickle running under the bridge
Sun rise again
Looking along the dam
Looking nice and calm
Anyone got a key?
We followed the track created for the wind farm until just past the old quarry, before turning left
The reservoir again
Arty shot
New pylons to accompany the turbines
Windy Standard in the distance, a few undulations before we get there
We are now off piste on mushy soft tufty stuff
Following an ATV track which is very soggy
One for the turbine lovers
Follow the fence
Looking across to our second hill - Alhang
Looking SW
One of the older wind farms
Summit of Windy Standard is on the right
Looking westish
North westish
Arty shot
An expert at work
It had to be done
On our way up the pathless grotty stuff to Alhang, looking back across the glen we descended into
The reservoir appearing again
Looking back - west
Alhang cairn, needless to say Parminder's camera didn't appear
Do they look impressed?
Reservoir again
Alwhat summit
Blacklorg Hill, newish mast in the foreground and a new windfarm in the distance still under construction
Blacklorg summit cairn
The new windfarm a bit closer
Blackcraig Hill, bit of going down before the final push up
My colleagues loving the final ascent
Blackcraig trig appearing
A video taken on the summit before George and Parminder arrived
Parminder a happy bunny, two trigs on one walk
A long way down
The normal way down / up is via the shoulder of Blackcraig which is to the north, we don't do normal so we were going to descend down the west side of the hill. The main and obvious problem is crags, not only is the west side steep it is also littered with either scree, heather and the odd blade of grass.
I had plotted out a route avoiding the crags, which would mean traversing slightly to the SW and that worked a treat.
George admiring the view. The car park is near the big white (ish) building in the distance
Kind of shows how steep the west side is
Action shot of Parminder descending
Still a bit of height to lose
Looking up the glen
Another action shot
Not quite as steep now
George racing away now that the terrain is better
Next problem, there is a bridge about 800m to the north but we opted to clean our boots
Not really jungle stuff
The safety of the track that takes us to the car park via Craigdarroch
The west side of Blackcraig Hill
Another cracking day, we all found it tough especially the last 2 ascents. It highlights the fact that taking a week off makes it difficult, hopefully our next outing will be easier.
