free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Had a few spare hours on St.Andrew's Day, so I took the car up to Carrot Farm beyond Eaglesham for my last walk of 2015, and bolted up and down Corse Hill with daylight fading. Conditions were too murky for any clear views to the Carrick Hills or Ailsa Craig, but the views over Glasgow were tremendous as storm clouds rolled in from Ayrshire.
*gulp* Bit late to be starting a hillwalk, eh?
By following a green sign to the left and heading over a faint path through a field for 250m, the route links up with an old track to head up to the main network of windfarm access roads.
The route to Corse Hill is well signposted at most junctions.
Preparing to break out of the trees as the route edges towards 330m.
Glasgow and The Campsies in this distance.
Enormous specimens.
A huge map showed the locations of each turbine at Whitelee Windfarm, the largest onshore wind farm in Europe. I'm a big fan of them, but only provided they go in the right locations. I never climbed Corse Hill beforehand but I imagine it would be a duller experience without them. The flip side, of course, would be to imagine turbines on top of Buachaille Etive Mor or some other grand Munro!
As the road swung of the right of the cummit of Corse Hill, I struck out to the left to attempt a shortcut. 30 seconds later, knee-deep in snowmelt and long grass, I wished I hadn't bothered!
It was a great relief to reach the summit of Corse Hill after clumping about in high wet grass for what felt like an age (but was probably only about 3 minutes).
The lights of East Kilbride and Glasgow were starting to glow to the North.
With daylight fading fast I headed down the more proper route South-West to pick up the windfarm road again, turning North to head back to Carrot Farm
Festive-looking trees for the festive season.
At this point I came rather unstuck, accidentally heading down a dead-end road to another turbine before realising my mistake. The only choice was to walk 1/4 mile back up then take the next right, as there was no way I was traipsing through snow-laden high grass.
Ooft, getting dark now.
Ok, so I didn't quite mean for it to get THIS dark.
Luckily the wind farm roads are all clear, so it was a simple enough walk back along to the final descent path next to the farm.
Err, ok it's actually pitch black now.
Yikes!
Phone torch was required for the final path down by the farm, as that's much less clear than the wind farm roads.
There's the farm. They might think I'm sort sort of burglar actually.
With some relief I returned to find the car, albeit frozen up for the first time since I'd bought it. All in all a good workout, and some great dusk views back towards Glasgow (and south towards the low hills of Central Ayrshire). It was also interesting to see the gigantic turbines up close, as a couple of years later that industry would become my 9-to-5 living...