free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Hi all, I have enjoyed browsing this forum for a couple of years now. Many of the walk reports posted have inspired me to follow in your footsteps. Therefore I have finally plucked up the courage to try and contribute sometime back to the forum.
For my first post.. I have chosen a local hill in the Ochil hills .. Ben Cleuch standing at 2364ft high.
I did this walk on 28/12/09 to work off the festive food. The weather was perfect. I only have a 10 minute drive to get there which made it even more appealing to me. The road conditions in were not good due to ice.
The walk starts in Mill Glen at Tillicoultry.
Im very much a loner so like to get started while most other walkers are having breakfast. I was the first in the car park and my solitary footprints in the new fallen snow proved I was the early bird getting the worm.
The path winds it way through Mill Glen passing many lovely waterfalls and crossing the burn several times by well made footbridges. Just before the steep assent of the Law which give access to Ben Cleuch there is an awkward rocky outcrop to clamber down then up on the other side of the burn. It was well iced and slippery so I decided to play safe and put on my crampons. Im glad I did because it made this section easy. Later in the day I saw several parties trying to cross here and slithering around on the steep icy banking. They didn’t look at all safe to me.
Once on the open hill, the snow softened again and I took the crampons off. I stopped for a moment and took this photo looking back down the way I had just come. The hillside was golden white and orange in the early morning sun.
Soon the snow deepened and I was often up to my thighs is the soft stuff. The slope steepened and I started puffing for breath trying to find my stride. The rich Xmas fair was taking its toll on me too so I was very glad when I finally crested the Law. The fence than runs the length of the shoulder from the Law to Ben Cluech was draped in festive icicles and plastered in snow. With the deep blue sky and the hills of Perthshire as a backdrop ..it looked like a Xmas card scene to me.
On the plateau heading for the summit of Ben Cleuch, the deep snow had been sculpted by the winds making it look like some great white desert ..or should that be dessert? I could feel the festive food weighing me down. Walking was very difficult. The snow was sapping my energy while I was trying to free myself when I fell through the thin crisp covering.
Finally I made the summit and the views were stunning. I believe you can see all the way to Ben Macdui from here on a clear day. I could see for miles but my problem was I just didn’t know what Ben Macdui looked like from Ben Cleuch and my map didn’t go that far.. However I could recognise Ben Nevis and many of the other closer munroes.
Far below in the plains of the central belt I could see Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument. I think could also make out the hills on the Isle of Arran , or was it the Paps of Jura, or both ? It’s at times like this that I wish I had studied my geography a little better all those years ago at school. However you can be certain that my lack of local knowledge didn’t spoil my view of the countryside. I was at the top of the class
Rather than return the same way, I decided to push onwards and do a circular walk by taking in the summits of Ben Ever and Wood Hill. Im glad I was going downhill now as the snow on the south west descent from Ben Cleuch was now up to my waste at times. I got out of trouble more than once by rolling in the white stuff to extract my legs from its frozen grips.
I now had the opportunity of getting a photo or three of Grangemouth and beyond to Edinburgh. The ridge from Ben Even to Wood Hill provides the foreground in this shot.
After almost five hours of floundering around in fluffy freezing snow.. I finally made it back to the car. I was a weary man but very content. I had another wonderful day in the great outdoors. I will leave you now with a view over Tillicoultry on the last downhill leg of the route.
Thanks for looking and I wish you all a Happy New Year
