Glen Sherup horseshoe and then a quick nip up Steele's Knowe

[gld73]

Would have been the weather for a long walk to bag some munros, but I had to drive from Inverness to Whitehaven and so couldn't really spend too long up mountains. I had a look for a nice walk which wasn't far off my driving route and spotted this nice horseshoe taking in a couple of Donalds and only 5 miles detour from the A9 between Perth and Glasgow. A lovely clear day, so good views, and nothing too epic so I wasn't tired for the rest of the drive. Followed the WalkHighlands route description, didn't see another soul until the last stretch from the reservoir to the car, when the evening dog walkers came out.

Start of walk at the car park

Innerdownie summit cairn

...and again, but looking to Tarmangie Hill

Couldn't decide which the high point of Tarmangie Hill was, so went to both cairns and the fence by the stile, could have been any of them. Whitewisp Hill on the right, the hill between Innerdownie and Tarmangie Hill

Forth bridges in the distance

Middle of the horseshoe/ head of the glen, view north to Ben Shee on the left, Glen Sherup reservoir, and Innerdownie on the right. Steele's Knowe is the sub2k hill behind, wind turbines on it.

Top of Ben Shee, looking back to Tarmangie Hill (high point middle left)

Crossing the dam of Glen Sherup reservoir to rejoin the forestry track back to the car park

Only took 3.6 hours to do the walk, so rather than hit the motorways around Glasgow at rush hour, I had a look at my map and saw the hill over the road was Steele's Knowe. My map pre-dated the wind farm which now gave an easy route up. I could have done it from the parking area I was already in, but didn't know whether there was a verge along the A823 or not, so just drove the km or so east to the windfarm entrance where there was parking for a handful of cars (I was the only one there). Straightforward walk up the main windfarm track which took me to within one or two hundred metres of the trig point on the flat plateau. Returned same way. 1.6hrs round trip.

Heading up the track of Green Knowe windfarm

Looking back south across the A823 to the Glen Sherup horsehoe hills

Steele's Knowe summit lies just west of the wind turbines

The view to the west is a bit less industrial