Norman's Law from Luthrie

[jgregor]

We arrived in Luthrie at the back of 9am and found a space in the Village Hall car park. It was a pleasant novelty to start off in this nice rural village, rather than the side of a road miles from anywhere!

View from Luthrie village hall

We headed out of Luthrie west along the road to Carphin Lodge

Sunrise through a cow shed

At the end of the road we turned north on a track leading to Carphin Farm, skirting the edge of Emily Wood on the way.

Heading north from Carphin Lodge

Track up the side of Emily Wood

At Carphin Farm the track doubled back past a house being built, then up some steps in what looked to be a recently landscaped area, and back onto a track which continued north-west towards Black Craig and Norman's Law.

The way we'd come, looking over the pond at Carphin Farm

A good track heading towards Black Craig

Approaching Norman's Law

Heading down Black Craig and on to Norman's Law, we arrived at a gate and a style (with a gate for dogs above the style). This led to a track, where we took a "detour" from the WH guide - which is to say we took a wrong right turn onto the track. By the time we realised we decided just to continue and find another way up.

A wrong turn led to a muddy track...

...and a steep climb!

The views from the top were superb - across the Tay to Dundee, the Sidlaws and the snow-covered highlands beyond. The Lomonds looked fine from here too, and the rolling countryside of Fife to the south.

Summit of Norman's Law, with view over the Tay and Dundee

View west up the Tay, with snowy peaks just visible north

East and West Lomond

Summit cairn

On way down, with view over Fife

Heading down the way we should have come up led us through narrow passages in the gorse, and back to the same muddy track we had been on before. This time we followed it south past some highland cattle.

Walking down through the gorse

Highland cows

The track continued over the fields west of Whirly Kips.

We turned west onto a narrower path running along the edge of Wallace Wood, to the south of Whirly Kips. This path eventually took us back to Carphin Lodge, and then it was back along the road to Luthrie.

Path on the edge of Wallace Wood, south of Whirly Kips

New stables, and Norman's Law beyond

The road back to Luthrie

Back road back to the village hall

[dogplodder]

Looks a good walk and you got a fine day for it. I climbed this hill many years ago, before I took photos or there was any Walkhighlands to write reports for so I've only the faintest memories of it. I remember we started in Guthrie so it's good to see what we probably did.

[jgregor]

Looks a good walk and you got a fine day for it. I climbed this hill many years ago, before I took photos or there was any Walkhighlands to write reports for so I've only the faintest memories of it. I remember we started in Guthrie so it's good to see what we probably did.

Cheers - it was a good day, better than I'd expected. I imagine it's changed a bit since you did it - new houses and recent rewilding projects around the farm. Still, the great views across the Tay will be the same.

[pikapolonica]

What a nice walk and you had good weather.

I have a question about your route. I tried this same route (the whole descibed on WH) sometime last year, but when I got off Norman's law through gorse and turned right on what you call "muddy track", I could only follow this track for about 10 min or so. Then I came to a gate across the muddy track that was shut, and it looked like it has been like that for a long time, because vegetation already grew all over it. So I was forced to turn back and retrace my steps. Is this gate open now?

[jgregor]

What a nice walk and you had good weather.

I have a question about your route. I tried this same route (the whole descibed on WH) sometime last year, but when I got off Norman's law through gorse and turned right on what you call "muddy track", I could only follow this track for about 10 min or so. Then I came to a gate across the muddy track that was shut, and it looked like it has been like that for a long time, because vegetation already grew all over it. So I was forced to turn back and retrace my steps. Is this gate open now?

Hm, I'm not sure which gate that would be. There was one gate we missed - when the muddy track petered out we could see a pedestrian gate in the fence further down. But once we got down near it we got a bit lost in the gorse there and couldn't see the gate. We eventually found the fence and climbed over it into the field on the other side. From there we could see the gate was further up from where we crossed. Is that where you mean? Or further down where the route went around Whirly Kips?