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Amazing what you find on your doorstep.
Having to rely on public transport (or larger groups) we looked into a few 'local' walks and settled on Dumgoyne/Earls Seat.
10:07am bus from Buchanan Street gets you to the Glengoyne Distillery just before 11am. We were aware of a possible path up through or past the Distillery itself but instead followed the guide from Walk Highlands. This takes you slightly North of the Distillery and past the small house settlement,,up the path marked Private (parking). Defined drive/road up to the trees, couple of twists then take the right hand fork. As you come out at the bridge, there's an amazing natural flume where the stream drops down and take a sharp left turn down under the bridge,,exposing the yellow stone beneath, now worn smooth after countless years of watery sculpting.
- Natural flume at the Glengoyne Aqua Park
Follow the track round to the right then straight up through the trees to the left, all this does is to cut out a left hand sweep of the track,,slightly tougher cardio workout. Carry on up towards the bottom of the house/garden and a newish farm gate can be seen to the right. Go through the gate, to the end of the thin pines, then up to the left. A few muddy footprints do a path make! (apparently) cross a small ditch and on towards Dumgoyne,,cant really miss it at this point.
- First view up to Dumgoyne after the pine trees
its right in front of you!
You reach a small burn between two fences, each crossed by a style.
- Always knew Margaret had style/stile,,(see what I did there? did ya? )
Fair bit of snow around and the path can easily be followed up the steep rocky West face of this volcanic plug,,found some of the bubble filled rocks that hint at the hot volcanic activity in the area soooo looooooonngggg ago. The path is a steep climb so its heads down, get on with it and stop to admire the views,,often!. About two thirds of the way up, you have the choice of going straight up or following a less strenuous route to the right which takes you easily up to the summit. We had a fantastic view, 360 degrees and snow on any ground over a couple of hundred feet for miles around.
- Ben Lomond and the Arrochar Alps to the North
- Atop Dumgoyne
- View to the North
The directions we had from the site, note the steep crags to the East, a fell runner pointed out a less steep descent slightly to the North. Now, I know Margaret wont mind me telling you of her struggle to negotiate this route. Having had a kick in the confidence last Autumn in the Red Cuillin, she was naturally a bit wary of any steep descent. Snow covered as it was,,the underlying ground was a bit of an unknown, so stick in hand,,she made her way down. For some reason,, I found an altogether more gung-ho approach and just trotted down, zig zagging as I went. Only one or two slides but the ground was soft and the snow powdery, so was a bit of a dawdle. You dont need to go all the way down before meeting a path/shelf off to the right and can see where this meets up with the paths to the left, back to Glengoyne or off the right, where we headed towards Earls Seat.
- Margaret trying to get down without landing on her bum!
Got my own stick out at this point as the very soft ground easily gave way under my left foot.
Passing over the dip between Dumgoyne and the start of the Campsie Fells to the East, we had seen 2 hardy fell runners and some other walkers. It was a cold day but barely any wind so no need for windproofs and the exertions of the steep climb had built up quite a heat. So, hats and gloves were off while walking and back on when we stopped. We had taken our time with lots of stops to admire the views, take pictures and generally be girls and chat a lot, so we decided to get our heads down and get straight up to the top of Garloch Hill. We checked our bearings at the old ruined building,,barely visible above the snow.
- In my wee bothy, what a view from the lounge!
then carried on up the slopes.
- Towards Earls Seat
This route in the summer or in warmer conditions would be pretty boggy but the ice etc kept the ground pretty much hard/crunchy underfoot. One or two muddy/boggy stretches but we managed to jump over them in a few leaps. The snow itself was fairly dry so we didnt even bother with our gaters.
- Doon in one piece
- Cloud covered Dumgoyne from above (east)
We could now see Earls Seat off to the right and estimated the circular route to it, then off to the North and back would easily take us 1.5 hrs in these snowy conditions so, taking into consideration the time of day, we prob only had 2-2.5 hrs daylight left and we would probably not get back before sundown,,we opted to head North East to Bell Craig to stop for some lunch. The onward route to Earls Seat from here is off to the right to the Clachertyfarlie Knowes. We could see the route but were happy with our decision to enjoy the walk instead of rushing to simply get to a known point. (does that make sense to those peeps who just head out to "get there"?)
- Think shes trying to ski with no skis and 1 pole
We started back West and had earlier seen what looked like snow moving in below us from the South. On reaching the ground overlooking Dumgoyne, this turned out to be nothing more than low cloud and although not windy, it seemed to swirl over and round Dumgoyne and the watery January sun, so white and low in the sky, gave off an eerie light around the peak.
- Spooky
Some small figures on top looked very solitary.
- 2 very small people
Unless of course you are particularly keen,, you don't revisit Dumgoyne on the return leg, but skirt to the North and back to the double fences with stiles. We took a path down that we had seen others coming up, this indeed, as first thought, brought us to the field south of the Distillery, nice and handy for the bus stop, but with half an hour to spare, we nipped (scuse the pun) into the visitors shop for a look.
- Barrel of laughs me!
- The Glengoyne Distillery
Treated myself to 2 very cool whisky glasses,,touch of the light bulb shape and very easy on the hand. The very friendly staff were great and as we had just climbed the hill and were a bit cold, they kindly offered us a wee dram of the hard stuff. So, purchase in one hand and a shot glass with 10yr old Glengoyne in the other, I was a happy gal. Off we went to the bus stop to enjoy our wee malt.
- One for the road
- Dumgoyne with the sun setting to the west
Dumgoyne is a wee hillock that you see, comment on etc on the way past,,whether on the road or on the West Highland Way, which passes by the Distillery on a long flat stretch. Its a challenge of a climb, vertical with a scramble and is a spectacular view point on a day like this. It can be easy to rule out the smaller, apparently less challenging walks and hills but you miss out on some lovely days, so, set your sights a bit lower and soak up the surroundings. Fantastic.