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A cold, but clear day, and not a breath of wind, so despite every puddle being frozen, this was a pleasant walk up Mile Hill with the boys. With a 3pm start, we squeezed out every last drop of daylight…
We parked at the old gatehouse at Knowehead of Auldallan, the same place where we started for Cat Law 11 months ago, and headed through the grounds of the house to join the track towards Hilton. We stayed on the track past a grotty looking dump of old TVs and fridges, along the edge of the woods and eventually descended to meet another track from the west. Today, there didn't seem to be anything gained by cutting across the field as some other walk reports suggested.
- Looking towards Mile Hill
Just below Hilton farm, there was a pretty substantial piece of floodwater that had completely frozen over, so of course we tested it out for slidiness. Maybe a future venue for a mini-Grand Match…
- No swimming!
We turned E and headed along the track to the ruins at Gairlaw, then S up the field, and through the gate at the top to hit the steep slopes of Mile Hill. The ground was firm, the grass was short, and it was easy walking up to the top, where it took us a couple of minutes to find the cairn (still a pile of about 12 small stones).
- Snowy Cat Law from the summit of Mile Hill
The sun had long disappeared, so we took in the view and some jelly babies, and quickly headed back the same way, retracing our steps pretty much all the way back to the car (and the boys jumping on every frozen puddle they'd missed on the way up

).