Almost a very expensive pair of Marilyns

[McMole]

Deuchary Hill – 511m, 11.1 km, 420 m, 2.4 hrs

Park in the usual place on the left just after passing Loch of Craiglush. As I pull on my boots a robin flutters around only a few feet away.

From here a short footpath through the trees joins a good track that continues all the way to The Glack where it now goes to a house that is being/has been renovated with workmen and scaffolding still in place.

The track past it and its electric fence becomes a path and at Mill Dam crossroads I turn right onto a track then about 1km later turn right again along what now becomes a muddier and soggier track. I startle a few deer - one a stag - along this section. When it crosses the Leddown Burn I head up what appeared to be a path beside it, but soon realise it isn't and instead head directly uphill. When I reach a flatter section I find a well-travelled path and follow it towards the summit and its trig point.

I startle another group of three deer, one very light in colour, before the final climb.

The Deuchary Hill summit rocks with Loch of Lowes on the far left peeking out behind Craig More with Newtyle Hill beyond and Mill Dam on the right.

The summit from the trig point.

A closer look at Newtyle Hill with the Lomond Hills visible on the horizon. The coniferous forest mentioned in my Newtyle walk report is clearly visible in dark green with its horizontal lower boundary.

Another path heads on down from the summit possibly heading towards Lochan na Beinne and/or the track to its NE. I, however, retrace my steps down the path and continue along it back to the main track. It reaches that track only about 30m beyond the point where I’d left it at the burn. On the way down I see a trio of walkers heading along the main track as I approach the junction and meet another couple a few hundred metres later. There were several more visible on the far side of Mill Dam so it appears to be a popular walking route for so many to be there on a Wednesday. Back at my car I find it has now been joined by three others parked in front of it.

I open my rucksack for the first time that day for a snack before heading for Newtyle. I had carried it all the way without needing anything in it. That included my jacket which a cool breeze had almost tempted me to wear at the start, but it hadn’t been necessary.

Newtyle Hill – 317m, 6 km, 290 m, 2 hrs

I parked in the Loch of Lowes Visitor Centre car park and headed along the woodland path between the road and the loch. This crosses the road, enters woodland, and heads up towards Newtyle on a good track. After passing the gate where the main route heads towards Dunkeld, the path becomes soggy in places and as shown on the map it then starts to contour round the hill. When I reached the boundary wall I found it surmounted by a fence and therefore continued along it longer than I’d planned until I reached a gate leading into the coniferous forest. After about 100m I saw open country to my right so headed that way then turned south to reach the forest fence where I found a welcome stile.
Looking back at the stile.

Beyond it I entered an area of dead foot-trapping bracken which led me to skirt a low marshy area heading for a small lochan. I reversed course to find a less soggy and narrower section to squelch across then climbed up and over a hillock and entered a scrubby area to avoid more bracken - mistake. I should have kept along the hillside to reach a wall and then walked alongside that instead. The wall crosses a flat apparently boggy area which was more solid than I expected. The wall then climbs up a heather clad slope to another wall joining from the left. This is easily crossed, but I also crossed the main wall with its superimposed fence so I was on the correct side for the summit – 2nd mistake. Heading through the woodland to reach the summit cairn I found myself passing a stile over the wall.
The summit cairn.

Birnam Hill from the summit

On my return I used the stile and stopped to retie my boot laces, placing my Garmin in a trouser pocket. From there I found a rutted groove through the deep heather most of way back to the wall junction. I crossed back over it and hugged the wall till past the scrubby area when to my dismay (at ‘A’) I found my Garmin had disappeared. Trying to reverse my track exactly – not at all easy over the heather clad sections - I returned all the way to the stile without finding it. Then walking more slowly with some to-ing and fro-ing along possible alternative routes I reached the wall junction again, still Garmin-less. Then about seventy metres after that (at ‘B’), to my great relief, I find my Garmin lying clearly visible on the ground between clumps of heather. From there I retraced my upward route with minor alterations back to the car. Subtracting the 26 minutes my Garmin had faithfully recorded from my dropping it to finding it, it recorded the walk as taking a few minutes under two hours for a distance 6km with a height gain of 290m. The search added perhaps another 1.0 km and 50m of ascent.
I shall henceforth take greater care in zipping my pocket shut when my Garmin is in it.