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To take advantage of the lighter nights and the wonderful weather we decided to investigate the eastern Ochills after a previous visit to Dumyat. Setting off from the upper car park close to Castle Campbell and making our way around the burn we reached open hillside. We continued to the right and the hill rose steadily in front of us.
We paused on the flank of Bank Hill when it bacame clear that King's Seat was going to be a much longer climb than we envisaged and only after some discussion about the sunset times ( and the organisers reminder about the post-walk drink
) we decided to attempt to scale the top of the hill. Nearly an hour later as I puffed and panted up the steep sided hill I was starting to suffer from a bit of 'false summit-itis' as each ridge only showed yet another climb in front of us. We passed a memorial cairn to some Spitfire pilots who had crashed on the side of the hill, operating out of RAF Grangemouth. The skies and views were spectacular on a balmy clear night and this was a gentle reminder to me about why I do this activity, to escape into the hills, away from daily concerns and reflect on the beauty of the Scottish countryside.
The large cairn on the brow of the hill was a welcome sight after clearing several 'summits' but even then it was pointed out that the true summit was further 100 metres away - marked by the smallest of cairns that is almost overgrown by grass. Here you see the giant turbines of the windfarm before turning back to return the path we had ascended on.
On the descent we took a path over Bank Hill, to overlook the town of Dollar below. A word of warning here though to take the left hand track from the Bank Hill cairn as otherwise it leaves you with a much more trying descent over Jacobs Ladder to return to your starting point. Thankfully we beat the sunset and the cool pint in the King's Seat pub (where else?) in Dollar hit the spot quite nicely.
Enjoy folks!
