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Since completing the small group of Corbetts to the East of the M74 the four to the West have been drawing my eye every time I look at my Corbett map.
Yesterday seemed like the perfect day with the weather expected to be better in the South so with a three and a half hour car journey ahead of me I was on the road just after 5:30am.
After a couple of wrong turns and a brief stop I was parked up by around 9:30am. A large car park and only another couple of cars parked up and nobody around.
- Car Park at Forrest Lodge
The first thing you notice on getting out of the car is that there are tracks leading off in every direction so an early opportunity to make my first mistake of the day. I had my WH notes with me, my paper map and Garmin but stupidity got the upper hand and I wandered over to Forrest Lodge.
Took the above photos and continued uphill round the side of Forrest Lodge and in to the woods before realising that things weren't going to plan so retraced my steps back to within about 50 yards of the car when I saw the sign I had been looking for.
- Blue sign for Fore Bush
- Take the Birger Natvig Road
So after about 20 minutes I now realised that I should have left the car park, walked 50 yards towards Forrest Lodge (continuing on the road I had driven to the car park on) then turned left on to the Birger Natvig Road just before a bridge short of Forrest Lodge. It's also obvious now who owns the land I'm walking on!
Finally I can get the walk started and it's a good track that climbs gradually through a de-forested area of ground up to and beyond the white cottage (Fore Bush). Once in to the forest the track splits and I continued on the main route (signed Loch Harrow in light blue and in metres).
After Loch Harrow the gradient started to steepen but on the good track it was straight forward.
- Beyond Loch Harrow
Time for what I assume was mistake number two. I was looking for a large boulder beside the track and at that point I knew there would be a stone bridge over the burn and it was then a short walk to a stile that would take me over the deer fence and on to the open hill. Instead, I reached a point where the track took a right turn and there was another light blue sign directing hill walkers to take the track on the left to a stile over the deer fence, assuming this would be the same stile I followed the track. This track was fairly squidgy as I followed it uphill to a burn that was in full flow after the previous night's rain. I found some stepping stones that were wet but relied on them to get me safely over to the far side. From here up to the deer fence was wet with fairly long grass. The stile was four poles resting against the barb wire fence but the fence was only about 3-4 feet high so I was able to clamber over it fairly easily.
- View from the "stile"
With my first clear view of the hill I could see that I need to cross the burn again and head for the higher ground over to my right. The walk over to the burn and the climb away from it was tough going. Long grass, unseen holes and very wet (the re-crossing of the burn was easier as it was narrower at this point) it was strength sapping but eventually it was behind me and I was surprised to reach a narrow path which presumably was the one I should have been on had I not gone wrong back in the woods.
Now the walking was easier, it was still a fair climb but so much easier underfoot.
- View of the higher part of the climb
- Looking back down
The path follows the edge of the corrie before reaching the wide top ridge and after a short walk the summit is reached.
- Corserine Summit
- Looking over towards Carlin's Cairn
Getting in my car and driving south to climb hills is an alien concept to me but standing on top of Corserine and taking in the views I have to say it's a pretty impressive sight and has whetted the appetite to get back again soon. The night before I had read a couple of reports on these hills including Secret Squirrels route that included Carlin's Cairn. It was never my intention to include this hill but it looked so close and appealing I just couldn't resist the temptation so headed off in the opposition direction from the one I had intended. The walk over and back was as straight forward as it looked and didn't take very long. I must have enjoyed the views as I forgot to get the camera out
Back on Corserine the route ahead is obvious and after about 100 yards I picked up a grassy track that I would follow over Millfire and then Milldown.
- Millfire ahead
- Looking down to Loch Dungeon
- Merrick has to be next
- Typical wet bit
The walk over to Millfire was straight forward, a bit undulating and some wet patches that needed to be avoided.
- Millfire summit looking towards Milldown
- Down to Loch Dungeon
It didn't take long to cover the ground between Millfire and Milldown, similar to the track between Corserine and Millfire, grassy and wet in short sections but straight forward. There was now a wall to my left that I needed to cross to get to the summit cairn.
- Summit of Milldown over to Meikle Millyea
- Back to Corserine
Between Milldown and Meikle Millyea I left the grassy path and followed the narrow path running parallel to the wall. The descent is straight forward with the low point between the two hills having a few lochans for a bit of added interest.
- Final climb of the day up to the summit of Meikle Millyea
Following my WH notes I knew I needed to just follow the wall up to the cairn but the high point of this hill seemed to be over to my right. On reaching the cairn the other top still looked higher so no choice, I needed to go and check it out. The walk over is straight forward and there and back only took a few minutes.
- Cairn on Meikle Millyea looking back over to Corserine
After a short stop back at the cairn it's time to head off the hill, headed NE to the rocky outcrop where I then followed the wall all the way down to the forest. There are more wet sections on the way down but it's still fairly easy walking. Close to the forest there is a short steeper bit and on a steep wet grassy descent the inevitable happened and my feet went from under me resulting in a soft but muddy landing. A bit frustrating as it was the last difficult part of the descent and I was completely soaked.
Following the line of the wall I could see a stile about 300 yards away then to my left about 100 yards away I could see a gate so chose the shorter route. The going was hard again, long grass, very wet and hard going so I was glad to get to the gate where there was also a stile followed by a short walk through the trees on to a wide forest track.
Chose to turn right on to the track and follow it downhill through the woods. The sun was now out and on the lower ground in the shelter of the trees it was quite warm.
- Hopefully the correct track back to the car park
- Looking back
After about half a mile I noticed that I was on the Prof Hans Heiberg Road which I knew was the correct one for the walk back to the car park. The track continued downhill past a white house on my left before running paralled with a river and reaching the car park
- According to Wikipedia, a Norwegian journalist/novelist/playwright/critic
When I got back, the car park was empty which was a bit of a surprise. Made me wonder how busy this place would be if it was in say Perthshire?
This was a really enjoyable route with some great viewpoints, probably my best day out in the hills for a couple of months.