free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
The forecast for Saturday was good so it was a chance to get another Angus hill bagged before the bad weather set in. Hill of Wirren has always interested me and the WH reports I had read made my mind up (they all mention a monster peat bog at the summit
).
I timed the walk to coincide with the kick off in the Hearts v Celtic match and took the digi radio with me - not something I've done for ages but I really enjoyed it.
I parked about 100m beyond the Right of Way sign (for Gen Esk/Ballater) and walked back to the signed road to Auchowrie farm (the Right of Way and farm roads are only about 20 metres apart).
- Looking towards the RofW and the Auchowrie Farm road
I'm not keen on walking through farmyards, I always feel like I'm trespassing so approaching Auchowrie it was good to see that there was no sign of life. Just before the farm I passed through an open gate on my left into a grassy field with a well made track heading diagonally over the field (in the direction of West Wirren). About fifty yards into the field I saw the gate to my right (beyond the phone mast) I knew from other reports I needed. Once through the gate and out of the field there was a narrow grassy path that contoured the hill and picked up the larger track that heads straight up Hill of Wirren.
- Approaching the farm with the gate top the left
- Looking down on Auchowrie Farm
- Grassy path
- Now it gets steep
- And then suddenly, the track ends
There are shooting butts on this side of the hill and the track ends just before them. There is then a narrow and obvious path to follow.
Eventually I reached a new looking fence line with a track on the far side so I took the track and headed East towards the summit.
- Last bit to the summit
The track was heading just to the North of the summit so I crossed the fence again for the last 50 yards to the top.
- It's time for the peat hag bit
The good news is the peat hags were fairly firm so it was an easy walk (you get the feeling that in really wet spells people could disappear in here
)
After a few minutes at the top I decided to head over to West Wirren, I didn't know how far the good track went for but I would use it as far as I could.
- Looking towards West Wirren
Once I had walked a few hundred yards it was obvious the track went over West Wirren and onwards to link up with other hills as well as the Right of Way at the start of the walk. Using this good track it only took a few minutes to reach West Wirren.
- Looking over to Tarfside and beyond
- Looking back to Hill of Wirren
- Summit of West Wirren
As I sat and ate a sandwich on the top of West Wirren the one thing that struck me was the number of tracks on all the surrounding hills. I was able to count 17 different tracks, more than I've seen from any other hill and a lot of them look to be new.
After West Wirren the track headed South West down the hill.
- Parallel tracks - why??
When I reached the parallel tracks I went through a gate and turned right to take the left hand track in the above picture.
- Looking towards West Craig Cairn
At the crossroads in the picture above I carried straight on to the cairn.
- View from the cairn
- Looking over to Hill of Wirren
After photos at the cairn I went back to the crossroads and turned right to go downhill heading straight towards Auchowrie Farm.
- Looking over towards Hill of Wirren
The track reaches a field and this is crossed diagonally where it then crosses a burn before entering the field beside Auchowrie Farm at the start of the walk.
Really nice walk this with good views especially from West Wirren.