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Hill number three and of the five we did on Orkney this was the most challenging, though that was predominantly because I went on a day where they had been heavy rain earlier on in the morning making what would have been an already wet boggy route even more wet and boggy
Parked up at the viewpoint on Scorradale road and followed the track upwards. The initial part of the track was getting quite badly eroded but this improves after a short distance where it was just very wet. Through a gate which took a bit of work to get open and then through a set of double gates the track heads towards Ward Hill. At a small cairn we took a smaller path following it towards a fence. We crossed the fence into the firing range (no flags up) as that fence had partly fallen down, so not a very secure firing range if it is still in use! and the next fence was easy to cross on this side too. At a gate we went back onto the other side of the fence to head for Mid Hill first following a narrow path. In hindsight it would have been better to stay on the other side as part of the hill on this side is steep bare ground, not sure if there was maybe a bit of a landslide there or something but it was a pain to walk across especially as it was wet. Once across we continued to follow the path and which started to disappear, but at this point we could see the clear path going up Mid Hill and just headed towards that following it to the summit which was marked by a small stone slab. At least I figured that was what it was lying there for!
We followed the path down towards Ward Hill. On the way up I wasn't sure if we'd be able to get over the fence and there didn't appear to be a gate, but as it was the path led to a small section of fence where the wire had been bent inwards and the dogs were able to just jump over it for the short ascent to the summit of Ward Hill, which despite not being the highest of the two was by far the better viewpoint and worth adding on.
From there we followed a path down towards a track and that led round to the gate we used earlier, from here we just retraced our steps back to the layby.
- Panoramic from the summit of Mid Hill
- The girls looking for the summit marker to pose with...
- They don't mind a wet walk...
- Ward Hill summit