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Another midweek day off to take advantage of, but with a snowy weather forecast - cold, breezy and showery with the odd chance of some sunshine. Comrie was a strategic choice, with minimum chance of snowy roads but a reasonable chance of snow during the walk, whilst not too high for the wind to be an issue.
It didn't really turn out like this - a snowstorm on the M80 outside Cumbernauld causing long tailbacks and the other side of the carriageway completely closed, and then more snow once off the A9 necessitating a detour via Crieff to avoid the snowier direct route to Comrie. And then Comrie was miraculously devoid of snow - an unexpectedly green, wet oasis perhaps caused by rain shadow effect or something. Never mind...
Clad in ski jackets, hat, gloves etc., we headed out of town (freshly baked pie in hand) into the woods above the River Lednock. Most of the recent rain seemed to be locked up as snow, so the river level wasn't quite as high as we'd hoped, but it's still an attractive river set in a deep gorge.
The first set of rapids is called the Little Cauldron:
Further up we saw a couple of red squirrels scurrying around by the water's edge next to these rapids:
The most dramatic spot - the Deil's Cauldron - was accessed by a long section of boardwalk followed by icy, steep steps - just as it began to snow.
The top part of the waterfall is nearly hidden by folds of rock, but still an atmospheric spot - probably even more impressive in spate.
The path ascends to the road, which we followed briefly before turning up the nearly vertical path through the woods towards Melville's Monument. It's only a small hill, but the height made all the difference and the ground grew steadily whiter despite being sheltered by the trees. Nevertheless it was hardly a winter wonderland, even in sight of the monument at the top.
However, the summit is open to the elements, and we were happy to be greeted by a decent covering of snow making it today's highlight.
The view indicator was covered with ice and snow, so we clawed it all off to inspect the mountain's you can see on a clear day. Today the surroundings were just white - you couldn't even see Comrie - so we set about using the indicator as a plinth for a snowman. It ended up looking more like an Asian snowlady...
Agreeing that this was a much more suitable use for the viewpoint indicator, we headed off the hill by a gently descending track, slightly wet in places.
It was still snowing as we exited the trees onto open ground, and stony underfoot so no wet feet!
We weren't the only users of this track today - grouse (?) footprints led everywhere, evidently recent as it was still snowing heavily, although we didn't see any grouse.
The last section of walk roughly follows the eastern bank of the Lednock back to Comrie, with views back towards Melville's Monument.
The snow turned to sleet and finally rain on the final descent to Comrie, but happily this allowed for an easy journey home!
