Hill of the Wangie (Moray)

[HighlandSC]

Date - Sat 20/02/010
Hill - Hill of the Wangie (319m)
Route - Approach on forest tracks/hillside from south. Parked at NJ139531
Weather - Brilliant day. Cold and snow covered with blue sky and sunshine.
People - Me (+ dogs)
Time - 2 Hours
Distance - 2km
Ascent - 160m
Max Altitude - 319m


Last weekend I was dog-sitting for my parents and staying through this way. Decided to take a jaunt up a wee local hill as part of my dog walking duties. It's been a good couple of months since I've had a proper mountain adventure and I'm dying to get back out. Took delivery of winter gear the other day so that's me just about set to go This trip was actually the debut for my new Manta boots which were great

Route:
Head up the track a little from the starting point and soon enough a gap in the trees at NJ138532 reveals a clearing that would be a shortcut to ascend on to the forest track above. I chose to follow the track to the junction at NJ134533, then turned east toward NJ137533 before making a direct ascent up the hillside to the track at NJ137534. From there I used a Google map and GPS to navigate the fire breaks to the summit and managed to find the trig point easily. I made a direct descent from the summit, following a fire break and then through the forest plus a little bit on a mountain bike trail, and rejoined the track at NJ134533 and retraced my route back to the start

Apparently the trig point on this hill is notoriously hard to find and failed attempts are not uncommon. Certainly using OS maps alone would prove difficult as the 1:25k only shows the major fire breaks and there are many more to navigate. GPS and an aerial shot of all the breaks made the job fairly easy.

20100220wh_hillofthewangie.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Looking back towards car as I begin


Looking up the hill from NJ138532. A possible ascent route, but I continued on the track




The fork in the track at NJ134533 where I turned right to head east along the track




View toward Dallas


Looking South


Wind farm in the distance


Distant hills


The Dogs


Admiring the view


One of the many fire breaks...


Found it!


Reward


Another look toward Dallas on the descent


A couple more views...

[foggieclimber]

Good wee walk. Looks like you followed the route I took last month: Clickity

[HighlandSC]

Hi foggie, yes my route was heavily influenced by your recent one Certainly gave me the idea of leaving the track to ascend the hillside directly.

[Michelle]

Glad to see those new boots getting some use so soon! A bigger hill next time maybe?

[HighlandSC]

Another ascent of Ben Wyvis perhaps?

But yep, it'll be a bigger hill wherever I end up!