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As ever, didn't have much time and opted for something close to home and Whitewisp, Tarmangie and Saddle Hills in the Ochils fit the bill. Up at 6am, dragged myself out of bed by 6.20, in the car just after 7am and, following a quick stop at the local shop, on my way and pulled into the car park above Castle Campbell before 8am.
Unable to locate my map for the area, I'd checked WH the evening before and had a rough plan to do Saddle, Whitewisp and Tarmangie. If time allowed, I'd maybe also do Skythorn and return over King's Seat and Bank Hill, though I've been over these before.
I followed the track up towards the plantation above Glen Quey, then branched off to head for the saddle between Saddle Hill and Whitewisp
(accompanied all the way by the sound of Woodpeckers down in Dollar Glen). Quite a steep pull up here and I spotted a fox running up ahead which, the sheep appeared to be untroubled by. I, on the other hand, was troubled by how swift and agile it was, tanking up the slope in front of me!
Once on to the saddle, the slope leaned back somewhat and it was a then a straight-forward walk up to the summit plateau and a short wander across this to the cairn. It was not yet 9am and, while not a glorious blue-sky day like those of late, pleasant enough and offering reasonable views. I only had the use of my camera phone so, apologies for the quality of the pics.
East
South (mist over Dollar)
North
Didn't hang about and struck out for Tarmangie, again a fairly easy tramp across good ground, made slightly more interesting by accumulations of snow/ice on the obvious route. It was a mere 15-20 minutes to the summit cairn. I spent 5-10mins at the summit soaking up the views, North and West particularly, and deciding where to go next. Beforehand, I didn't think I'd been on Tarmangie Hill previously but was overcome with a sense of having been here before, especially looking down over Upper Glendevon Reservoir.
The view NW from TH
I wandered up the slope ahead to the fence-line and weighed-up Skythorn and King's Seat versus the clock and opted to return the way I'd come. I saw my first other walker of the day here as I traversed around the South side of Whitewisp on the way back and over Saddle Hill, down the nose and into Dollar Glen. Saw another walker heading up Bank Hill here.
Aptly-named, Whitewisp Hill...
Castle Campbell
Back at the car in under 2 hours, which was fine as had a big day of running / biking the day before. Another two walkers were just setting out and there were another three cars in the parking area.
Later in the day, I found my map (a very old OS one of the Perth & Kinross area). While having a look back at my route, I became aware of faint pencil marks and realised it was the route I'd taken while doing Duke of Edinburgh with the Boys Brigade, over 30 years ago! Tarmangie wasn't on the route but I'd obviously passed nearby on a route starting in Dollar itself, up the glen via the golf course on to Bank Hill; King's Seat; Skythorn Hill; over the dam at Upper Glendevon; Craigentaggert Hill; Kinpauch Hill and down into Blackford to camp for the night. Next day, we set off through Whaick; Berry Hill; Core Hill
(I recall it getting extremely foggy and our route bears this out as it then went zig-zag!); Little Corum; Sauchanwood Hill; Mickle Corum; Blairdenon Hill; Bengengie Hill; Colsnaur Hill and Craig Leith, before dropping down into Alva narrowly avoiding a steep craggy drop in the thick mist.
Those were the days.
