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Doon Hill and Fairy Knowe, Aberfoyle

Doon Hill and Fairy Knowe, Aberfoyle


Postby hakirby » Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:59 am

Route description: Doon Hill and Fairy Knowe, Aberfoyle

Date walked: 04/01/2013

Time taken: 2 hours

Distance: 4.5 km

Ascent: 75m

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Right, I'm coming clean right now. This isn't a Walk Report, it's more a Missing Persons Report.

I'm the Misper. Yes, I've plotted the walk I think I took, but only the Fairies and that black horse in the field really know. And maybe that Black Dog with a pipe and a smoking jacket, but we'll talk about him later.

See, I have this teenager, whom we'll call The Son - who the Gods in their Wisdom blessed with 2 outstanding talents. The 1st one is photography. The 2nd is losing things. They're not mutually inclusive, but the pursuit of the 1st usually co-incides with the 2nd. It's like we have this deal going.

I take him somewhere to take pictures, he gets us lost.

Last year we had a satnav and were going to Port of Mentieth for the priory. "A dinnae wan tae end up in Inversnaid," says I and gave him the satnav. I must have been high.

There's nothing in Inversnaid. Know how I found that out? We ended up in Inversnaid.

(And there were too many witnesses to drown him.)

So, it's winter, short days and I need a route that'll fit in with that and it's close with stuff to take photos of, so I figure, Aberfoyle's not far and I know the way and I've always wanted to see the Doon Hill. I've had a book of local fairy tales since I was 10 and visiting these places is as good a list as any. He's happy because interesting photos to take.

So off we go.

Luckily, there's plenty turn offs to Aberfoyle because I missed the first two. LOOK HE'S JINXING ME.

So we make it to Aberfoyle. I've printed out the route from Walkhighlands and off we trot.

"That river's really high, that'll make some cool photies", says The Son. So he takes some photies of the bridge and the Forth. The Forth's quite a bit bigger by the time it gets to our neck of the woods. Mind you, it was plenty big here, it was near up in the car park at the Wool Centre.

I slip into my current role of "Hod This". I think they call them Photographer's Assistants in English.

When he's finished we go into the graveyard and wander round the old bit, looking for the minister's grave, while I tell The Son the story. we dinnae find it, but we did see the mortsafes and that lead to a discussion of bodysnatchers and Burke and Hare. they made a book out of Burke's skin, it's in the Surgeon's Museum. We went to climb Arthur's Seat last month and the police had shut off with the wind, so we went to Greyfriars to looks for ghosts and mortsafes instead. didn't find either.

IT'S HIM, HE'S A JINX.

So, we get passed the church we're it turns into a track and go looking for the green gate. we find two.

I think it's one one up ahead, he thinks it's the one on the left. "Fine we'll go your way," and we ended up in some horses' field.

So, we go up the next green gate and find a sign for Doon Hill Fairy Trail, Luckily the path is fairy clear, not even The Son can get us lost here. he takes some mair photies and complains about the climb. He needs to stop getting lost on the way to the gym and get some exercise.

He blames it all on the weight of the camera and stand.(Neither of which he was currently carrying. Hod This was carrying them) So we eventually get up the hill and it's a shrine up there. I reckon it was an old hill fort at one time, but he gets so good pics.

So, we go down a track from the top of the hill and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere (HE PICKED IT), it just seems to be going round and round. "You've done it again.It's a tiny hill in the middle of a village. How the hell did you manage that?"

"It's gift," says The Son. "There's the path down there."

So we trot down the hillside (ten metres or something) and find there is a path, but it's blocked by a small stream and we can't jump it, we wander round for a bit while I muse on our predicament. (she swore her head off at me, she does that a lot- Stewart.

(You get us lost a lot, sweet pea, now stop hijacking my story. Unless you want to tell it.)

Right so he decides to try to find our first path and walks back up the hill. Yeah, never saw that path again.

It takes us half an hour to get off the hill.

So, we're wandering around the paths at the back of the hill, while he takes more photos of trees and various streams and the Forth that are in spate. We're having to wander because at some point SOMEONE WHO IS NOT ME lost the route. He's worried because it looks like the Forth is getting higher, but it's OK, because the Fairies saved us. I have no idea where I am, because I don't have a map for Fairyland, but hey. at least they have internet access.
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hakirby
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Re: Doon Hill and Fairy Knowe, Aberfoyle

Postby Thistler » Mon Oct 12, 2015 2:05 pm

Absoulutly genius!!!
Thistler
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Posts: 1
Joined: Oct 12, 2015

Re: Doon Hill and Fairy Knowe, Aberfoyle

Postby Mharie D » Fri Jun 24, 2022 7:30 am

This report is absolutely brilliant i haven't laughed so much. You should write a book of your adventures 😂
Mharie D
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Posts: 1
Joined: Jun 24, 2022

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