The bickering windmills of Green Knowle

[Tam Collie]

A small run on local hills: Well we knew it was coming so a last trip out saw us stravaiging the Ochills around Borland Glen.

We parked at the Green Knowles wind farm access road and yomped up the service track to the unnamed top pt.474 . This is given the name Rowantree Craig by another site suggesting it may be a few inches higher than the NW top which holds the name on the map. To get there we had to wander under a couple of the singing turbines whirling many feet above our heads. I didn't like it at all and kept my ears and tail well down as I didn't want to lose them. we quickly scurried off to the NE to the pass that takes the Borland Glen track and up the slight incline onto Green Law and Sim's Hill.

Looking back at the bickering Green Knowle wind farm

A fence, broken in places, runs along this pleasant broad and grassy ridge with its open views to both North and South.

The view North towards Green Knowle wind farm

Views South over the Forth

We found an old abandoned jeep up there, a Suzuki FJ140 apparently. Don't think it's a runner.

wreck

As we were exploring, the pronounced John's Hill looked interesting and gave us the opportunity to visit the ancient enclosure on the summit, an archaeological site of some antiquity no doubt, the function of which has long since been forgotten. Still, on the ground, a slight undulation of the 'ring' is noticeable only because it breaks the uniformity of the summit slope. He took a photo of me standing on the dyke which completely fails to show it , makes you laugh but it was there honest!

John's Hill enclosure

The idea from John's Hill was to run over Fanny Hill and along the forestry track and down the zig-zigs to rejoin the Borland glen track. A great 8 foot deer fence stopped us getting to White Creich and put that idea back in the box and we had to backtrack to a lower fence higher up Borland Glen before making our descent.

Descending the side of the burn we disturbed a couple of prospectors panning for gold and we exchanged pleasantries and they kindly showed me their finds.

Once back on the Borland Glen track we ran down to the main road and the up the A823 back to where we had parked the car after what was a very pleasant and interesting day in some delightful surroundings .