free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Another weekend of picking off a few stragglers in the NE, just me & Parminder again and my turn to drive.
Planning is a bit more challenging when there are no recent walk reports to compare and get suggestions from. So it was a matter of looking at the existing reports and then looking at the routes. The main problem with older walk reports especially with the Marilyns is they are usually near to or surrounded by forests. That isn't a problem (normally), however with the amount of deforestation work ongoing it makes looking for up to date info very difficult.
I use Google maps alot, that is useful for trying to work out where to park.
We left Fife at 8am & headed north, had our usual coffee stop on the outskirts of Forfar mainly to break up the journey, if you think we spent 5 hours in the car & only 3 hours walking - non walkers would think we are completely bonkers!
I should mention that this was my first outing for my new Scarpa boots and they didn't even get dirty - which is quite rare for Marilyn's.
Cairn William, 339m of ascent, 7.95km, 2hrs 6mins
The last walk report was 3 years ago.
Quite a busy parking area, not sure where the occupants were as we only met one couple walking their dogs
Great track through the forest
Trees removed a few years ago, do find it annoying when piles of timber lie on the hillside literally rotting
A mast with very few attachments, may have something to do with being surrounded by trees!
The 'Sky' dish is a bit on the low side, may have to make do with Council TV
Almost getting a view to the north
Our first view of Cairn William
We have now left the main track and headed uphill
Obstacles, you can see Parminder appearing using the detour
Still a good path
Path quite badly eroded
More obstacles
Cairn William now visible
Gorse still in flower
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2r8n8BW]
Looks easy from here
The track continues uphill, however it was designed for the biking community, no steep ascent and very long zig zags across the hillside
The bike track up Cairn William
Kind of stood out from the crowd
Looking northish to Mither Tap (the pointy one) we were up a few weeks ago
Path rising nicely, southish
Parminder demonstrating the zig zag, he was heading south, me north!
Looking east to Pitfichie Hill 379m
Time to leave the zig zag & head direct up to the summit, only knee deep heather to contend with
The way up - carefully
Parminder loves a spot of heather bashing
Reached the zig zag track but went straight across it
Came across this on a large rock near the track
Looking back downhill
Trig now visible
Looking SW
Eastish, River Don visible
Camera shot of the Don, zoomed
Parminder joining me
All the effort for this
Rapid descent through the heather and across the zig zag paths
Nearly back on the path
Arrived back at the car to an empty parking area
The way in to the parking area
Now it was over to the Satnav to get us to the next starting spot and it passed with flying colours.
Had to stop and take a photo of someones hard work, just a shame that not many passing vehicles would see it as it well off the beaten track. If anyone fancies visiting the hedge belongs to the Old Mill, north of Pitfichie.
Benaquhallie, 170m of ascent, 3.05km, 58mins
The last walk report was 3 years ago.
Parking is very limited but I managed to leave plenty of room for any farmy type vehicles
Another good track to start, we opted to leave the rucksacks in the car as this would be a quick up & down (we hoped)
Good sturdy walls, however a roofer would be required
Parminder eager to get started
We are heading towards the trees on the top right of the photo
Good track
Lovely path, nice gradient
Up to the trees, then swing right
South
Bit of flora
Parminder relishing being back amongst the heather
Heading up there
Plan was to avoid the bracken
Looking back downhill
The heather here was much easier to ascend
And then we came across a nice green patch heading uphill - easy peasy
The way up
A shower to the SW. we would stay dry
The way ahead
Patches where the heather has been burnt maybe last year, nice and crunchy underfoot
Shower passing well to the south
Large cairn on the summit area now visible
Much bigger than on most hills
Path across to the trig
Looking down on the cairn
Looking south along the wall by the trig
Camera was in the rucksack, so the mobile was entrusted with the all important photo
Really enjoyed the couple of hills, neither of which was too demanding, the latter was a nice wee stroll and offered great views.
