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Grahams: Ben Cleuch.
Sub 2k Marilyns: Dumyat
Other Donalds/ New Donalds: Innerdownie, Whitewisp Hill, Tarmangie, Andrew Gannel Hill, Ben Cleuch, Ben Ever, Blairdenon Hill.
Sub 2k Marilyns: Dumyat.
Date: 18/05/2019.
Distance: 32.5 km.
Ascent: 1570m.
Time: 6 hours, 35 minutes.
Weather: Claggy and damp, but not too cold or windy.
I had nothing planned for Saturday, but Jackie was working in Stirling for the morning. Seemed like a good chance to hitch a ride and do a traverse of the Ochils - long intended, but something I never get around to. Sadly the weather didn't look like it would play ball, but it didn't look horrific either.
Having taken a bus through to Dollar from Stirling, I was on my way up Dollar Glen by 9:45am. The weather looked gloomy but at least it was barely raining at that point. I followed the footpath up through the glen past bluebells and interesting gorges, eventually emerging next to Castle Campbell.
Bluebells in Dollar Glen 
Gorge in Dollar Glen 
Footpath up Dollar Glen 
Castle Campbell From here I followed the good footpath through towards Glendevon, taking a brief shortcut to reach a forestry track shown on more recent maps which led almost to the summit of Innerdownie. There wasn't really much of a track or forest here - the newly planted trees looked like a mixture, but not the usual conifer plantation, which was nice. The ground underfoot was dry, but due to wearing my old boots, swishing through wet grass got my feet wet in no time at all
.
Whitewisp Hill 
Path to Glenquey 
Ascent to Innerdownie 
Glenquey Reservoir Once on Innedownie, the going was easy across Whitewisp and Tarmagie, passing a couple of large groups (one DofE, the other a women's walking group).
Innerdownie summit ridge I decided to skip out Kings Seat Hill as I had been up there before, it was out of the way, and there would be no views today. The going was a little pathless over Cairnmorris and Skythorn Hills, but I was soon on an obvious route again on the back of Andrew Gannel Hill. The cloud looked to be lifting for a short time here, but by the time I reached the summit there was nothing to see. Oh well, on to Ben Cleuch then!
Summit of Andrew Gannel Hill The rain didn't really amount to much over the day, but it was at its heaviest (with the most wind) on Ben Cleuch. Nevertheless I managed to dive behind the summit shelter for a few minutes to eat lunch. I was grateful for the descent down to Ben Ever to escape the worst of the wind though! Fortunately it was an easterly, meaning it was broadly behind me all day.
Descent to Ben Ever There were some views available around Ben Ever and the traverse back towards Blairdenon Hill, but little of photographic interest. The hills to the west appeared to get less defined and more haggy than what had come before. I was passed by a fellrunner on Ben Ever, but ended up catching him up again on Blairdenon Hill, probably due to him going a bit off course in the intricate terrain. I have to admit I went for a 'hit and hope' style of navigation here, but it seemed to work.
West of Blairdenon, things became haggier and more tussocky still, and I lost the path for a bit. Originally I had planned to drop down over Big Hunt Hill and Loss Hill, but by this point I couldn't wait to get out of the clag, so aimed for the shortest route towards my next stop, Dumyat.
Dumyat 
Colsnaur Hill I ended up dropping down between the Second and Third Inchna Burns, which had newly been planted with rows of conifers - a rather depressing effort compared to what had been done on Innerdownie. Lower down I picked up a track and path which led me more pleasantly towards the Lossburn Reservoir.
Dumyat from the Third Inchna Burn 
Glimpse of the Forth 
Dumyat from Lossburn Reservoir On the other side of the reservoir there was an obvious path towards Dumyat, and the weather began to look up, with some impressive cloud formations back over the higher Ochils.
Myreton Hill form Dumyat 
Cloud cauldron on Myreton Hill I burst onto the summit just after joining the main path and suddenly all was busy. Great summit though - one I had been looking forward to for some time. Spectacular holes were breaking through the clouds over Stirling.
Castle Law from Dumyat 
Stirling I left the hoards behind and dropped down to Castle Law on a much less obvious path off the southern nose. A quick wander over Castle Law then it was down towards Sheriffmuir on a combination of the new and old path.
Castle Law and Stirling 
Summit of Dumyat 
Dumyat from Castle Law 
North across Sherrifmuir 
Stirling and Careleathan 
River Forth Great timing - Jackie had finished for the day and arrived at the carpark about 5 minutes before me for the journey back to Glasgow. She would probably have rather been out on the hills, but didn't really miss much weather-wise!
