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Doune Hill has always been one of those hills that's intrigued me, it's always looked very imposing no mater what angle you view it from, even the name sounds imposing compared to the hills round about it.
I failed in a previous attempt to reach the summit of this one a couple of years ago due to the weather, so with the day (according to the BBC forecast) to be relatively dry till late afternoon, I set my alarm for 6 and was away at 0645.
Arrived at the parking spot just after the Rams head Bridge, hoping I was the 1st to arrive, I was and in fact, I didn't see a single soul all day, even when I looked over towards Beinn Dubh, which always seems to be popular.
Suited and booted I head off down the road towards the start of the path which would take me up Beinn Eich, over the stile and "Squelch" nice and boggy, this was to be the theme for the rest of the day and it never let up. I dragged my carcass up Beinn Eich and it was one of those where, when the sun was out I wanted a breeze, when I got a breeze I wanted the sun out, unfortunately I never got both at the same time.
By the time I reached the summit the sun was still out but there was one hell of a breeze whipping up the Glen, I had a quick drink then headed for the ridge which would take me to Cruach an t-Sidhein, the squelching continued the whole way round, my heart sank when I reached the base, it looked like it was going to be a long hard slog for the final 200M to the top and at this point the wind had really picked up, so another carcass dragging exercise was under way, despite me blowing out my backside, I made it to the summit quite quickly thanks to the steep incline, although didn't stick around long, I was getting a bit of a battering and the weather looked like it was closing in. A wee scramble later I was back where I started and on to the final pull to Doune Hill and that lovely weather I was promised disappeared as well.
By the time I made it to the Trig Point I was lucky if I could see 6 feet in front of me, I sat by the Trig Point for about 20 mins hoping it would clear and I could get some photos but alas, not to be. The original plan was to descend from Doune Hill itself, however I didn't fancy it's steep slopes when I could really see in front of me, so I headed back to the ridge, more in hope than expectation that it would be clearer, by the time I had reached 550M I could see down the Glen, all the summits I'd just climbed were covered in thick clag. quite surreal being just under the cloud.
I made the long steep descent and eventually hit the Glen floor and headed back towards where I had parked the car as the "squelching" was now ankle deep pretty much for the entire walk back, In hindsight I probably should have crossed the river to head back. Made it back to the car, fresh socks and trainers on, bliss
Once again I've given you the FB link which you should all be able to access, account or not and have a look at the pictures
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151599121501926.1073741828.545136925&type=1&l=4aacba260b