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Steele's Knowe, clunk, screech and whine.

Steele's Knowe, clunk, screech and whine.


Postby The Rodmiester » Sun May 05, 2013 7:48 am

Sub 2000' hills included on this walk: Steele's Knowe

Date walked: 04/05/2013

Time taken: 1.5 hours

Distance: 8.24 km

Ascent: 294m

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I was to have been going to Knoydart with the club, but as the weather forecast for those parts were pretty terrible for a camping weekend it was cancelled late on Thursday, so plan B had to be implimented. This was to head on over to the wonderfully named Yetts o' Muchart to do three wee hills there starting with Steele's Knowe, get it out of the way first then head on over to Lindrick Hill and Innerdouny Hill. I was up early and at the large parking area on the A823 at the foot of the access road to the windfarm, another reason for doing this first was there was a track virtually all the way and I would get an idea how wet the ground was after all the rain the previous day.
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Parking area at the entrance to the windfarm track
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Track like this most of the way
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Windfarm sign
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By now I could sense a humming noise with an accasional clunk, the walking part was easy but you always felt this strange presence
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A nice view not spoilt, looking over to the Ochils, Innerdownie and Tarmangie Hill (part of plan C)
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Their getting bigger now much bigger and you can hear other strange noises, the occasional screak and clunk
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The odd sign giving you a directional map with the Turbines numbered
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Sceaching getting louder, so much so I'm just wanting to get off the hill. There is other signage suggesting in frosty and icy weather walkers should not access because of safety reasons, falling ice off the blades etc. The summit cairn is beyonf turbine number 6, where there is a wet tussocky section to travel which takes about 10mins to reach the top. There was a fine view from the summit Auchterarder which I forgot to take a photograph off, infact I forgot to take any photographs at the summit, I think it was because of all the strange noises and the overpowering affect these monster turbines had on me.

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9.JPG
By now I was glad to be off the hill and on my way back I had another look at the Ochils on the other side of Glen Devon, and that is where plan C came into place, I wanted to give them a try the sun was out it was reasonably warm as long as you kept moving which I intended to do. I would not be back to Steele's Knowe, but very pleased I did plan C (see other report)
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The Rodmiester
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Posts: 3398
Munros:107   Corbetts:196
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Location: Newbigging

Re: Steele's Knowe, clunk, screech and whine.

Postby alvason » Sun May 05, 2013 2:25 pm

scary other-wordly-sounding place, quite a price to pay for power.
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alvason
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Re: Steele's Knowe, clunk, screech and whine.

Postby alvason » Sun May 05, 2013 2:25 pm

scary other-wordly-sounding place, quite a price to pay for power.
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Re: Steele's Knowe, clunk, screech and whine.

Postby The Rodmiester » Sun May 05, 2013 3:58 pm

alvason wrote:scary other-wordly-sounding place, quite a price to pay for power.

Your right, did not enjoy this one, will not be back in a hurry, bit of an eyesore really, would not like to live too nearby that's for sure.
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The Rodmiester
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Posts: 3398
Munros:107   Corbetts:196
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Sub 2000:76   Hewitts:3
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Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Location: Newbigging

Re: Steele's Knowe, clunk, screech and whine.

Postby Sarah86 » Fri May 10, 2013 10:58 pm

I know you didn't enjoy this walk much but it helped me find out how to access this hill :lol: I had been looking at my os map trying to figure it out and couldn't tell if the public were permitted access to that path or not. After reading your report I attempted it on Tuesday afternoon but that was the exceptionally hot day and we had the dog with us, we didn't expect it to be as hot and we all started to feel a bit exhausted despite it being a nice easy walk. We got as far as where the path starts to split and you can head to Ben Thrush. The wind mills weren't on when we were up and we actually quite enjoyed it as it was something a bit different for us, will be heading back for attempt 2!
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Sarah86
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Re: Steele's Knowe, clunk, screech and whine.

Postby The Rodmiester » Sat May 11, 2013 7:28 am

Sarah86 wrote:I know you didn't enjoy this walk much but it helped me find out how to access this hill :lol: I had been looking at my os map trying to figure it out and couldn't tell if the public were permitted access to that path or not. After reading your report I attempted it on Tuesday afternoon but that was the exceptionally hot day and we had the dog with us, we didn't expect it to be as hot and we all started to feel a bit exhausted despite it being a nice easy walk. We got as far as where the path starts to split and you can head to Ben Thrush. The wind mills weren't on when we were up and we actually quite enjoyed it as it was something a bit different for us, will be heading back for attempt 2!

Hi Sarah86, you did well picking a day the turbines were not on, that was the main reason for the dislike, hearing all the strange noises of the revolving blades. Hope when you return your lucky enough to get another OFF day so to speak :) And remember to take a couple of summit photographs if the sky is clear :lol:
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The Rodmiester
Walker
 
Posts: 3398
Munros:107   Corbetts:196
Fionas:45   Donalds:13
Sub 2000:76   Hewitts:3
Wainwrights:1   Islands:17
Joined: Aug 15, 2012
Location: Newbigging

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