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2018 hasn't gotten off to a great start for me, walking-wise: it has been a bit of a Bad Snow Year, and I'm not really much of a winter walker
. I attempted my traditional January Detox Grahams Outing on Sunday 14th January, aiming to bag the two Amulree Grahams Meall nan Caorach and Meall Reamhar, but had to turn back defeated with nary a Graham bagged, after spending several hours wading through soft, thigh-deep snow
. (And that was just making my way out of the car par at the village hall
!)
So, February already, and I was getting fairly stir-crazy. However, the weekend forecast was looking a bit iffy, and after yet another stressful week at work and the tail-end of a cold, I couldn't really be bothered with an early start or a long drive. I therefore opted for a wee "Carry On Up the Campsies", having a look at a mildly unconventional southern approach to Stronend (and, if the Force was with me, maybe Carleatheran too) from Todholes. Sadly, the Force wasn't really with me today, though
!
Having made this decision rather belatedly after a last look at the mountain forecast around 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, I then flung my walking stuff together very hurriedly and set off for the big car park at the Carron Valley Reservoir, directly opposite the track to Todholes Farm and the Fintry Community Wind Farm. Some unpleasant sleety rain first thing in the morning had just cleared when I arrived, and the sun had even come out.
So, I got out my rucksack, my trekking poles, my boots ... aaarrgh! NOT actually MY boots; in my rush to depart I'd grabbed my own left boot, but my wife's right walking boot
. Honestly, I don't quite know how I managed it. I now had a bit of a dilemma, however: either lose an hour's daylight when I was already late by driving home to retrieve the other boot, or make do with what I had. "What I had" was the pair of shoes I'd driven up in: your basic M&S clumpy gents' black laceups. I had a good look at them. Well, they WERE fairly clumpy as M&S shoes go, and they do have a surprisingly good grip on them, something that I've been glad of walking to work in all the recent ice and snow.
Ah well, off round the Fintry Hills in M&S's finest it would be, then!
I headed off up the track past Todholes Farm and onwards towards the Fintry Community Wind Farm, and then left the track through a gate on the left at the first high point, before it started to descend again to bridge the Endrick Water.
There was an impressive view along the Fintry Hills' southern escarpment from the wind farm track, although Stronend itself is out of view round the corner.
I left the track as described, and headed fairly steeply up the tussocky terrain to the north-west to gain the southeastern edge of the plateau. Predictably enough, I very soon had wet feet, but otherwise the M&S shoes were coping surprisingly well with the rather difficult terrain: so far, so good
.
As I made my way up, there was a surprisingly impressive view west to the "Fintry Gap", with the Double Craigs cliffs to the north, and the unexpectedly craggy profile of Dunmore and Dechrode to the south. Here's a zoomed shot: if presented with this blind, I wonder how many people would guess that this was the Campsies? I certainly wouldn't!
A wee bit further up again, and I was enjoying this pleasingly brooding view over the Carron Valley Reservoir, with Meikle Bin to its west.
Onwards I plodded, making rather slower work of it than I'd hoped. I don't think my footwear was altogether to blame: there is some truly challenging terrain up here, with a lot of soft, tussocky, mossy bog and heather, which today was compounded by an icing of snow on top. I see that the Walkhighlands website's summary description of Stronend currently sports a rather lovely typo, and warns walkers to expect "fairly rough gog". Presumably meant to read "fairly rough going"; but "fairly rough gog" pretty much sums it up for me
! At least the views remained good, by way of distraction: here's a nice shot across to Earl's Seat with a whole shedload of snow on it, with a sheep looking rather alarmed in the foreground, possibly at the sight of my footwear
.
Another view of Meikle Bin and the Carron Valley Reservoir, with a good example of the Fairly Rough Gog in the foreground.
Another look across at Earl's Seat, in winter raiment:
Meikle Bin looking surprisingly pointy from this angle, almost the Schiehallion of the South, with more Rough Gog in the foreground:
The combination of Rough Gog and inappropriate footwear almost had me beaten at this point: it is a long long way northwest from the vicinity of the Endrick Water to Stronend's summit cairn, and I found myself in a bit of a geographical and psychological Slough of Despond somewhere around NS636886, giving serious consideration to the possibility of turning back
. After a wee rest and a Hot Pepperami, however, I managed to rally myself and plodded off northwest in what I hoped was the general direction of Stronend's summit. A brief shower of sleet descended just as I finally sighted the cairn, meaning that it suddenly became the Sub2K Marilyn at the Rainbow's End: a rather nice touch
!
The "Stron" in "Stronend" is presumably the Gaelic word "sron" ("nose"), i.e the "nose at the end [of the escarpment]", but to me it also has echoes of the old Scots word "thrawn" (meaning "stubborn") - it certainly hadn't given in easily, but I'd conquered this wee hill at last! Height isn't everything, nor is distance from the Central Belt conurbation - this lowly hill on Glasgow's doorstep is a decidedly tougher hill than several Munros I could name.
Another pleasing view of Meikle Bin, looking surprisingly pointy from Stronend's mildly delapidated trig point:
The wind had picked up a bit by now, and I was glad of the windshelter cairn thingamajig as I hurriedly munched my sandwiches before setting off on the return journey. Now, I could just have gone back the way I'd come, but that seemed a bit uninspiring, and I was keen to have a look at the Spout of Ballochleam waterfall in the vicinity of the Stronend / Carleatheran bealach. I was also hopeful of avoiding the worst of the Rough Gog on the way back
. I therefore headed almost due east from the cairn, picking up traces of path here and there, with an interesting onward view to Carleatheran and the cliffs of the Gargunnock Hills' northern escarpment.
Sadly the traces of path didn't last for very long, and I soon encountered further Rough Gog, with the Spout of Ballochleam area not looking very much closer
.
An interesting view northwards towards Ben Vorlich, Stuc a'Chroin and the Crieff hills, with a shedload of snow on them:
As I plodded my way eastwards, I was relieved to eventually pick up a grassy ATV track, which aided my progress considerably. It soon passed a rather lonely-looking Christmas tree:
An impressive view of Carleatheran and the Gargunnock Hills northern escarpment crags on approach to the Spout of Ballochleam:
Although my planned return route did have significantly less Rough Gog than the way I'd come up, it did have a distinct disadvantage in the form of three consecutive river crossings: firstly the Boquan Burn; then Gourlay's Burn; and finally the Burnfoot Burn. However, I already had wet feet, so I thought that if the worst came to the worst I could just wade it.
The grassy ATV track gradually descended along the steep gorge of the Boquan Burn, to eventually ford it just west of the Spout of Ballochleam (which is the spot where the Boquan Burn plunges northwards over the escarpment cliffs). This was the Boquan Burn gorge, and River Crossing #1:
I noted with some trepidation that the burn was swollen by snow-melt and pretty much in full spate: I managed to wade it without too much fuss, but it made me increasingly nervous about the two further river crossings to come.
Across the Boquan Burn, the ATV track ascended gently to pass through a gate and join the big vehicle track that comes up from Ballochleam Farm to the north. I took a wee stoat northwards to get a view of the Spout of Ballochleam waterfall: quite impressive, right enough.
A view back westwards towards Stronend and the northern escarpment cliffs of the Fintry Hills:
I headed off back southeast, initially making fairly rapid progress along the vehicle track, with another fairly deep wade required at the point where the track fords Gourlay's Burn (River Crossing #2), then onwards along the "path" (actually a grassy track) marked on the map heading towards the ruined farm steadings at Burnfoot.
The Fintry Community Wind Farm's turbines as seen from the vehicle track, with an unimpressed sheep in the foreground:
And a last look back northwest to Stronend, looking fairly bleak from here:
At the Burnfoot ruins, however, it was time for yet more Rough Gog, and a very tricky River Crossing #3 to boot. I was back on pathless terrain, and although the Burnfoot Burn doesn't look like much on the OS Landranger map, it actually turned out to be a very substantial watercourse deep in a rather precipitous river gorge: quite an obstacle! After traipsing quite a way northeastwards upstream, I eventually found a spot where I was able to pick my way gingerly down steep grassy slopes into the gorge, make an unpleasantly adventurous wade across the burn using my trekking poles for balance, and then bush-whack up the far side of the gorge. All in all not a terribly pleasant experience, and perhaps the main reason why the Todholes approach to Stronend and/or Carleatheran isn't more popular ... all the same, I survived it more or less in one piece, and from here on it was relatively plain sailing, heading southwards high above the surging Endrick Water to pick up the descending wind farm track, crossing the Endrick Water on a new wooden bridge, and heading back past Todholes Farm to the car park.
Another Grand Day Oot, with both weather and scenery considerably better than I'd expected, and a wee bit of adventure to boot! The M&S shoes did the job surprisingly well, too. All the same, I'd definitely advise anyone who might be tempted to repeat this route to avoid going after heavy rain or snow-melt, and to Beware the Burnfoot Burn
!