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Dumyat by Train

Dumyat by Train


Postby Phil Hinde » Wed Apr 01, 2020 8:18 pm

Route description: Dumyat by the hill path

Sub 2000' hills included on this walk: Dumyat

Date walked: 03/03/2020

Time taken: 5 hours

Distance: 18 km

Ascent: 414m

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Snowy peaks from Dunblane.jpg
Ben Ledi, Ben Vorlich and Stuc a'Chroin from Dumyat over Dunblane
It must be nearly 47 years since I first noticed Dumyat when staying with friends in Dunblane. Since then while visiting, and briefly living, in Scotland, I have swept past in cars, trains and Citylink buses countless times without ever getting to the top. Too busy looking for Munros or exploring lochs and glens! But in early March, and realising that walking might soon be constrained by coronavirus, a stopover with family in Edinburgh, but without use of a car, seemed the right opportunity for an outing to Dumyat by public transport, especially when forecast cloud cover threatened higher summits. A quick glance at the map showed that I could expand the Walkhighlands route from the Sheriffmuir road into a through walk from Stirling to Dunblane, with ready rail transportation at the start and finish.
In fact, although there’s a bit of a tramp through the streets at the Stirling end, it’s all on roads with sidewalks so no hazard, and a chance to pass some historic sites, Cambuskenneth Abbey, the Wallace Monument and Logie Old Kirk, which dates back to the 12th century.
So I turned right and right again out of Stirling station, then alongside the Forth, remembering it was once possible to come by steamboat from Edinburgh (as does the hero in the Jules Verne novel, The Black Indies, which is a splendid piece of nonsense with elements of Verne’s ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’, in which an explosion drains Loch Katrine into an underground cavern!). Over the river on the footbridge past the site of Abbey, and then when the road curves round beneath the crag that bears the Wallace Monument, a path from a small park leads over the shoulder of the hill to the Monument Visitor Centre. One then has to follow the B998 (not too busy and a pavement all the way) to the new Logie Kirk. Here you take the minor road up the hill past the Old Kirk to the start of the Walk Highlands route. In fact I stayed on the road, worried that the path through the wood might be waterlogged, but then came out on the hill up towards the summit. Despite earlier worries about the weather, conditions were actually superb, only to the south west were things a bit murky. And from higher up, the views across Dunblane towards snow-capped Ben Ledi, Ben Vorlich and Stuc a’Chroin were splendid. Time for a drink and a snack at the trig, and then I retraced steps back to the road and turned right towards Sheriffmuir. In fact I could have yomped down the back of Dumyat to the old track up from Menstrie and cut the corner but it was only about 2km to the start of a track off to the left. This was the hardest part of the walk because of the wet underfoot conditions and the depth of the streams running into the little Waltersmuir reservoir. Some otherwise praiseworthy tree planting activity had really churned up the last stretch to the road by some farm buildings, and a brief shower left me sheltering in the wood.
Once on the minor road from Dunblane up to Sheriffmuir you can turn right if you want to visit the main 1715 battlefield area, but I turned briefly left and then right, to pick up some well signposted trails (beware the mountain bikers) down into Dunblane town, a pie shop and the railway station.
The fact that the local trains to Glasgow and Edinburgh are now all electric made this a pretty low carbon and environmentally friendly outing!
Phil Hinde
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 4
Munros:107   Corbetts:21
Fionas:6   Donalds:3
Sub 2000:27   Hewitts:70
Wainwrights:27   Islands:25
Joined: Aug 12, 2012

Re: Dumyat by Train

Postby ere1 » Tue Apr 07, 2020 7:25 pm

Hi Phil,

In Scotland I always use public transport. If I am unable to use public transport, walking is something which I enjoy doing. Dumyat, this beautiful, small hill is a fine alternative if the weather is disappointing. It is a shame that I didn’t have views that were as beautiful as yours, when I was there last time.

Cheers

Peter
User avatar
ere1
Walker
 
Posts: 233
Munros:51   Corbetts:2
Sub 2000:1   
Islands:7
Joined: Mar 23, 2013
Location: Rijswijk, The Netherlands

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