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I'd long been intrigued by the prospect of this hill, what with there being the windfarm at the top. Now don't get me wrong, as I've hinted at various times in different comments on here, I'm no great fan of wind farms, far from it. I'd hate to see their proliferation continue unchecked but am willing to accept that, sited wisely, they could provide one piece of the future energy requirement jigsaw of this country. But there was definitely something about the thumbnail image for Steele's Knowe on this site that had me wanting to investigate further - that and the fact that on the day in question (one of my Paternity Leave days) Debbie and I were looking for a short, sharp hill walk in the vicinity of Auchterarder and I'd pretty much exhausted all the other local Sub2Ks in my recent frenzied bagging spree.
Debbie fancied a walk, this time without Ailsa in tow, so we left her with her grandparents in Auchterarder and headed off up through Glen Devon, parking at the Tormaukin Hotel in Glendevon village. Always a wise move to park next to the pub when undertaking a circular walk!
- Lucy and the Tormaukin
We set off at 1.25 for the short section of road walk back along towards the gate leading to Glenfoot Farm. On the way we passed the signpost for the footpath through the glen to Dollar, which is the same right of way path we will be taking in the other direction towards Auchterarder.
- Access gate leading to Glenfoot Farm with White Creich Hill in the background
- Lucy keen to get going!
- Debbie on track to Glenfoot Farm with turbine blades visible above Ben Thrush
With quite a few sheep kicking about, Lucy was firmly on the leash for this initial section as it climbed past the farm, through a short section of quagmire and then onto the grassy track as it climbed between Ben Thrush and White Creich Hill and into Borland Glen.
- White Creich Hill through the sheep pens
- Back down to Glendevon with the Youth Hostel building just right of centre and slopes of Innerdownie beyond
From the moment we left the road and took to the farm track, the rotating blades of one wind turbine were visible over the crest of Ben Thrush to our left and as we climbed towards the watershed, two others soon became visible, one moving, the other not. As we climbed higher, I soon became aware of the sound - initially a whistling sound which eventually mutated into something more like a light aircraft taking off. I'd never been close enough to these things before to hear the actual sound they make.
After a quick stop for lunch, we soon reached the watershed at which point we began to climb to our left up the heathery slopes, following the line of an old fence. All the time the whistling and roaring noise became louder and closer as four of the enormous monstrosities loomed ahead.
- Debbie tilting at windmills
- Walking into the forest of steel giants
- How to spoil a good view of Castlehill Reservoir and the Forth Valley beyond
- Distant Innerdouny Hill
Other things were very soon apparent about these things - they are ****ing huge (as can be see as Debbie stands at the base of one of them lending it a sense of scale and perspective) and the blades turn a lot faster than I had appreciated. From a distant vantage point, they seem to turn slowly, laboriously even. But with the "benefit" of proximity, they don't half fly round. I could appreciate now that they must actually be capable of generating a huge amount of energy as they turn at full tilt like this.
- Is it just me or is this one a bit bendy???
But it is also painfully apparent just what a blot on the landscape they are - not being among them so much, as looking through them to the views beyond. Do they actually spoil the views? Of course they do! Do they actually spoil the walk? I don't know to be honest. Sure, I'd probably rather that they weren't there, as fortunately they are not on 99.99% or so of all the hills one could conceivably opt to walk on in this country. But in a funny sort of way, this walk wouldn't be the same without them. In a really strange sort of way, they define Steele's Knowe, even if it is in a rather sinister way.
- Another view spoiled
- Dark satanic skies above Scotland's dark satanic hills
We emerged onto the main service track through the farm and continued below more of these mammoth constructions towards the distant trig point. I counted 18 turbines in all, all neatly numbered. It was quite unnerving walking towards and underneath the spinning blades and looking up at them as they fly towards you. Please don't fall off now! Actually, if one did come loose, I wondered how far it would travel??? Physics and the laws thereof never were my strong point at school!
- Lucy was strangely unconcerned about the noise and the spinning
- Scary!
- Looking back from final approach to the summit
- Innerdownie
We spent 10 minutes or so at the summit trig point beyond the whistling giants before deciding to opt for a descending traverse across the hillside rather than retracing our steps under the whizzing blades.
- Debbie looking down on Auchterarder
- Blot free view!
- Less so in the other direction!
- Craig Rossie
- John's Hill and Corb Glen from descent back to the track at the watershed
As we approached the track a short distance over the watershed from where we had earlier left it, a fine drizzle came on which later turned to a ferocious squall that chased us a good way down the track and back towards Glenfoot Farm, where some bovines had gathered since we last passed and they duly chased us for some of the rest of the way back to the road and the waiting Tormaukin Hotel and a well earned drink.
