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A wee group of us were away for a mid-January weekend at the self-catering lodges at Crieff Hydro, to beat the post-Christmas blues (worked a treat; a grand time was had by all
). Some of us fancied a quick bit of Marilyn-bagging as a quick leg-stretcher before lunch on the Sunday, while it had stopped snowing for a couple of hours.
Present: Edith and Andy C; Pamela and Alistair; my bobble_hatted self. Apologies from: Lindsay; Jules; Patrick; Elaine (Mrs Bobble Hat).
Unfortunately I hadn't thought to bring a camera so only had my very low-resolution mobile phone camera: apologies for the poor-quality pics.
We started from the lodge, walking up the hotel road to where the signposted track to "Knock of Crieff" starts up the forested hill to the right at a car park. It was a bonny walk in the snow.
Andy and Alistair were striding out purposefully.
To bag the actual Marilyn summit (and it would have been a shame not to), it was necessary to ignore some Forestry Commission Health and Safety notices giving dire warnings of tree-felling with "no unauthorised access"
. Rebels that we are, we did a quick recce up the verboten section, detected no evidence of any noises, vehicle tracks etc that might have indicated felling in progress (which seemed unlikely anyway on a snowy Sunday morning in mid-January
), and then went for it. The route goes over a gate to the right of the main track, briefly through a field and then up a forest ride that tracks up the Knock's south-west ridge. Very pretty in the snow, with overtones of Narnia.
It wasn't long before we reached the top of the ride, where we found what we think was the small cairn buried in the snow indicating the summit. Say "Marilyn", everyone!
The forest ride continues beyond the summit, bending left to re-join the main track at a big pile of logs: there had been fairly recent tree-felling, right enough.
From here it was a pleasant stoat home down the track, trying to avoid the inevitable "Knock Knock" jokes.
Oh okay, just the one then, and only because it has a sort of montane theme. My apologies in advance
.
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Little Old Lady."
"Little Old Lady Who?"
"Oh, I didn't know you could yodel..."
Anyhoo, it didn't take us long to get back down. The hills to the north-west were looking fine under snow; I was wishing I'd brought a proper camera.
The Knock makes a fine wee stroll for anyone based in Crieff, particularly the Hydro, and it's worth trying to make the brief detour to the actual summit, if logging activities allow.
