Three Perthshire Marilyns

[McMole]

Ben Clach – 6.6km. 330m, 1:59 hrs

Park at the start of a track NN 7804 1515 where there is room enough for a couple of vehicles. It was a dry day with rain forecast in the afternoon so I didn’t bother wearing any wet weather gear, Mistake. The track was twin grooves through overhanging grass; wet thigh-high overhanging grass and worse.

I stopped to pull on overtrousers before my trousers got totally saturated.

A non-view of Ben Clach from the track

With a little care, the track though crossing boggy and some boggier areas gave a good route as far as the Corriebeagh Burn (with one exception of a knee-deep water-filled hole that I found!). At the burn it descended into the stream channel so I turned to the right and followed a trampled path through bracken and other vegetation to reach almost a kilometre of some of the worst tussocks of the year unrelieved by any tracks heading even in the wrong direction. Eventually I reached steeper slopes giving much easier going with even the occasional groove (can’t describe them as paths) to follow. On what appeared to be the summit I found a small post lying on the ground next to a hole and a rock. I attempt to hammer it into the peat whereupon it immediately split. Though not where the OS have the summit point this was definitely higher.

During my descent the cloud started to lift and by the time I was back on the track the summit was clear.

I saw several clumps of grass with an orangey-yellow substance smeared on them. Can you tell me what it is?

Torlum – 4.7km, 305m, 1:19 hrs

On arrival at the start of the forestry track opposite Balloch Cottage I found a couple of small ‘No Parking’ signs part-way up the wide access area near the gate. There was no evidence of any work under way, the roads were deserted and it was a Sunday. So I parked near the road and set off. At 1pm as predicted by the Met Office I felt the first drops of rain. There was more to come, but never more than a light shower. Following the forest tracks towards the summit I discovered that the map didn’t show all of them, but I reached it to find the cloud that had risen earlier had now descended and of views there were almost none.

I returned back mostly the way I’d come. The difference in my Garmin’s track between the in and the out route over the last kilometre might be because it was upside down in my pocket and I was in forest all of which would reduce signal strength and lead to poorer accuracy.

Knock of Crieff – 3.2km, 155m, 0:49 hrs

With the rain almost stopped I held to my plan and drove the short distance to Crieff and to the Knock car park. One point of note was climbing through two gates on the way to the summit in the forest.

The cloud was still low so it wasn’t a day for hanging around admiring views.