What exactly is a Knowe? and the geometry of walking

[ngm1scot]

I'm getting back to fitness after my op and after a 11k walk through Mugdock earlier in the week, decided to knock off a wee hill thats been eluding me for some time. Whenever we get to Dumgoyne it somehow, like a spoiled child, seeks our attention and since Earl's Seat is so much further away, Dumgoyne always wins.

Not today however.

As I crossed the stile that leads on to the hillside, I headed very decidedly North East and avoided the staircase up the front of the wee mountain.

As I made my way up through the corridor between the bracken plantations, I felt that I hardly knew this ascent. Not since my first ever climb of Dumgoyne almost three years ago, had I gone up this way. I felt very unfit but soon reached the point where the path across the front of the mountain joins the grassy path and headed away from Dumgoyne, resisting its allure despite the WH route suggesting that you take it in.

All of my misgivings about finding a (sensible) route round the North side were groundless as there is a well trodden path of grass all the way from here to Earl's Seat. Although the ground continues to rise, its easy going and soon you catch a glimpse of a different view not only of Dumgoyne but of the Drumiekill Knowes.

Drumiekill Knowes

The path heads through (at this time of year) some long-ish grass and reedy kind of things and then contours around the Knowes. What exactly is a Knowe? Answer is simple and obvious: a hillock or knoll (knowe is apparently a Scots corruption of Knoll).

Dumfoyne

Anyhow, after the Drumiekill Knowes there are the Clachertyfarly Knowes and Canny Face to deal with. Had some tea at Canny Face

Glasgow's own wee mountain

Canny Face

where a runner passed by at a fair speed. Just after that the map shows some human constuction which turns out to be a stone wall and the ruins of a small building

The old settlement

and where the grassy path becomes more gravelly for a bit and Garloch hill comes into view and is the first cairn of the day.

Garloch hill from Canny Face

Looking south east along the path you can just see the "Seat" poking its black top above the horizon.

The black distant summit of Earl's Seat

The next top is Bell Craig which is a lovely rocky outcrop and is a bit more challenging than the rest of the undulating path across the top of the Campsies but it's up to 540m and then immediately back down again. Damn! I was rewarded with an amazing rainbow however.

Over the rainbow

From there it's a short haul up to the final cairn at the top of the next big hill but it seems to have no name on the map other than as a group called Ballagan Tops.

Ballagan Tops

Earl's Seat - not far now

Shortly after this cairn which is more of a shelter than a cairn pure and simple, the way round to Earl's Seat is fairly clear and looks like just about 1.5km away. It looks further than it actually is and soon I've turned the corner and am heading South and up to the trig. However not before a wee encounter with the Campsies!

The path at one point heads East and then obviously turns South and why would one NOT take the short cut that avoids the curve? So of course I did and despite coming up against this wee patch of water thought it would be an easy two steps across using what looked like a solid patch of mud in the middle.

The wet bit

But once I put my full weight on the muddy spot, it gave way and i found myself thigh deep in the bog

After the bog: 2

and one bent walking pole later.

After the bog: 1

Only afterwards did I consider that I was on my own and what would have happened if I'd gone both feet into the mud...would I ever have been seen again?

Although Earl's Seat looks fairly pointy from the distance, there is no real sense of pointiness when you get there - like most of the Campsies' "summits" I guess.

The top

The rain clouds - which had kept away for most of the morning were now lowering behind me and teh sky becoming a leaden steel grey colour, despite the Accuweather forecast for sunshine between 9am and 1pm. So after some tea it was back down to the distillery layby.

My high school geometry came back to me as I climbed down the steep side of Dumgoyne and saw the alternative route across the field just beyond the stile which angled to the right towards the farmhouse. The hypotenuse of a triangle is (broadly speaking) shorter than the sum of the other two sides and so I decided to "short cut" down the private road that brings you out at the layby. Except that I forgot how to get on to the road and ended up taking a longish detour to nowhere before giving up and heading back down across the distillery field after all!

However it was an amazing walk and I felt great after it. Next up some munros again....