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Hills with interesting names

Hills with interesting names


Postby Fife Flyer » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:08 pm

Sub 2000' hills included on this walk: Dirrington Great Law, Meikle Says Law, Spartleton

Date walked: 23/10/2017

Time taken: 5 hours

Distance: 19 km

Ascent: 610m

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After what seems like ages since my last hill fix, a spare day with a half decent forecast so where to go. Ideally I would have liked to head north amongst the "big boys" but the forecast north of the Central Belt was pants so south it would be. Decision made, now what direction? I didn't fancy an early start so a study of the map and a few odd looking hill names caught my eye. I contacted George (dibs) to see if he fancied a foray south and he jumped at the chance. The original plan was to visit the northerly two hills but whilst heading round Edinburgh we discussed saying hello to another nearby Marilyn Dirrington Great Law and we decided let's go for it and as it was the furthest south that would be our first.
The plan for the day was for George to leave his car at my house and we would head off at 8.45 in my car.
One thing I should also mention is that I no longer cart my camera around anymore, I purchased a new smart phone which is certainly alot lighter. I still need to master the zoom facility as the photo's are not as good as camera quality.

Dirrington Great Law

We found a parking area right at the start of my plotted route and it wasn't long before we were heading up the track. As expected the ground was rather damp and we were grateful for the track which just about took us to the first summit of the day. We reached the summit of Dirrington Great Law after 40 mins took a few photo's and then headed back down to the car. We weren't planning to walk the 3 hills in a circuit, mainly because we aren't that fit or adventurous. Back at the car we dumped the rucksacks and poles in the boot kept our boots on and headed off to try and find the start point that I had plotted for our next target Meikle Says Law.

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Meilke Says Law

We found a small parking spot right at the start of my plotted route and kitting up only took a few seconds and we were off again. The really bad news was that the track we were following started off with a descent of over 50m down to Faseny Water and Faseny Cottage. The cottage looks like it is used as a holiday home and strangely had bars on the windows. The track was excellent and we utilised the small wooden bridge to cross the burn, we did discuss how such a good track could be cost effective and it wasn't long before we had the answer. There are umpteen grouse butts and a fair sized parking area for the vehicles to park after dropping off the paying 'hunters'.
The bad news for us that shortly after the parking area the track came to an abrupt end, the rest of the trek to the summit was over terrain we have become familiar with, tufty damp grass. As we had gained a bit of height and this hill was the high point of the day we were in and out of the clag. We were in the clag and it wasn't long before the first of many turbines appeared out of the murk. If anyone thinks they are nice and quiet we can assure you they are anything but.
Once we left the whirring monsters behind it wasn't long before we reached the summit without too much ascending. As we arrived at the summit the visibility abruptly improved and we could North Berwick and the Forth, I was quick getting my phone out to take a few photo's George wasn't quite as quick on the draw and shortly after he was ready to take some photo's the clag enveloped us again. We didn't linger too long and set off following our sort of circular route - there wasn't a path like we know it, but the way ahead was kind of obvious so we set off into the unknown following our planned route. There were shallow peat hags to traipse across and it wasn't long before we caught sight of the lonely cottage we were heading for. We weren't sure if we were going to be treated to another treat of the good track as we could see our outward track on the other side of the glen and it wasn't long before we were marching along a similar track surface to what we enjoyed earlier. On reaching the burn we contemplated and looked for a crossing point but common sense took over and we headed 50m or so alongside the burn to cross via the outward bridge. Then came the bit we weren't looking forward to the ascent back uphill to the car.

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Spartleton

Once again we kept our boots on in the car and headed round to try and find the planned start point for the final ascent of the day. We couldn't find any obvious parking area so I improvised by parking on a grass verge.
The route I had plotted looked as if it was starting on tarmac and walking through a farm.
We opted to start off nearby on a grassy slope and as we could see Spartleton we weren't overly worried as long as we were climbing.
Our route involved climbing over a fence and then we could see the track going uphill in the distance so we made a beeline for it and once on the track the going was a doddle. We soon reached the summit and were treated to some great views of quite a few wind farms. Photo's and we were heading down, once again the clag was coming and going on the descent and it only took about 30mins to get back to the car.

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Really enjoyed the day and a HUGE thanks to George for his great company, I don't think there was a silent moment.
I was swithering whether or not to post this and as there aren't many WR's on WH I made the executive decision to make them public in case someone wants to follow in our footsteps.
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Fife Flyer
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2702
Munros:273   Corbetts:60
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Location: Guess?

Re: Hills with interesting names

Postby Sgurr » Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:04 pm

Find that the glare on the smart phone screen sometimes makes taking pics hard. Any suggestions? MY Lumix has an eye view finder as well as a screen.
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Sgurr
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 5717
Munros:282   Corbetts:222
Fionas:219   Donalds:89+52
Sub 2000:569   Hewitts:172
Wainwrights:214   Islands:58
Joined: Nov 15, 2010
Location: Fife

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