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I hadn’t seen Colin in a while so when we stumbled upon a mutually free day where we were in similar parts of the country it seemed an ideal opportunity to get out. The forecast wasn’t looking too bad (nor too great either!) so it didn’t seem worth driving too far so we went for the Ochils – my usual go-to when the weather is a bit meh….
We began our meander in Tillicoultry and wandered straight up Mill Glen past the quarry…
…and then up the path and over the wee bridges and wooden staircases. This whole glen had been closed off a few years back to fix the path and they have done a good job – it’s like a wee trim trail all the way through!
As we climbed out of the top I realised that we’d actually missed the turning to go straight ahead up the hillside and we had meandered to the right. This didn’t matter at all as the whole idea was a bit of an aimless wander
Looking back down Mill Glen
The right hand side was where I had been aiming for, but we had been distracting by catching up on about 4 months worth of chat
My new working plan was vaguely that we could head up to King’s Seat Hill, over to Tarmangie Hill and then back over Ben Cleuch. As we reached the ridge it became pretty wet underfoot and then even wetter from the sky….waterproofs on already
It was easy walking (that’s one of the reasons I love the Ochils – you can just walk and walk for miles) and soon we were approaching the top of King’s Seat Hill (the actual summit is somewhere near where this photo was taken from but the cairn makes it feel like a bit more of a climax
)
It was very windy but it had stopped raining (and started, and stopped and started and stopped again
) and the views were not too bad!
Me on the (not) summit of King’s Seat Hill
From here we dropped down into the Glen of Sorrow
towards Tarmangie Hill. It was quite steep and slippery in places and I’d be lying if I said I’d managed to stay on my feet the whole way down (should probably start wearing those new boots
)
Down the bottom we hopped elegantly over a burn (some more elegantly than others
) before heading up towards Tarmangie Hill
Initially steep, the ground levelled out more as we climbed; approaching the top it was a hop over a fence to the summit.
The views down towards Glen Sherup were opening out
Towards Whitewisp Hill
It was windy and still raining on and off so we headed back along the ridge heading for Andrew Gannel Hill
This was boggy in places as we followed fenceposts over minor (and more major) bumps…
As we began the final climb onto Andrew Gannel Hill we got a glimpse of some wonderful wind farms (and also Ben Vorlich and Stuc a’ Chroin behind
)
Looking back towards Tarmangie Hill
Ben Vorlich and Stuc a’ Chroin
On the summit on Andrew Gannel Hill it was super windy
Looking over to Ben Ever – our descent route (possibly)
Ben Cleuch – our next target (probably
)
Another rainbow
Looking back – Andrew Gannel and King’s Seat
It was an easy climb up to Ben Cleuch, it rained on and off, but more off than on now and the views were a little more lasting
We made it to the summit of Ben Cleuch – not as windy as my first visit here
Dumyat and Blairdenon (probably not heading there today
)
Oh look, the weather is coming in again
Summit of Ben Cleuch
"Try again!" "No, it's too windy!"
Fighting against the wind we decided to head back down Ben Ever and back to the cars. It was turning into a lovely afternoon despite the wind and rain
The Forth Bridges
Ahead down the ridge from Ben Ever
Happy because the sun is shining
Looking back to the lovely Ochils
Andrew Gannel with another rainbow
The bridges again
Although it was drier now the grass was still damp and I managed to perform a sort of rolling somersault much to Colin’s amusement
Looking back up from the top of Mill Glen
We figured our path would eventually link up with our outward route and just kept going…
Colin as a silhouette
Except I tried to be too clever….
Back we went until we met an actual path
This did link onto our outward route and it was an easy walk back down Mill Glen
Another cracking meander around the Ochils. Pretty sweet having this pretty much in my back yard, and lovely to catch up with Colin as always
