Lamington Hill

[nigheandonn]

I had my eyes on another little hill - something that would be a nice trip to get to, but not too much work to get up and down. Heading a bit further down the Biggar road seemed like a good plan - when the Pentlands run out the Clyde valley comes into view, so it was in my mind.

Lamington now is an estate village with no estate, the big house having been demolished, but the location is far older, and the current 18th century church is built on the site of a 12th century predecessor.

Lamington church

I hadn't realised just how much I was coming into the shadow of Tinto, although it was keeping its head firmly in the clouds - but although it was generally grey and a bit drizzly Dungavel Hill and the lower hills behind the village were clear.

Also in the village is the Holy Trinity chapel - a bit of a mystery, because it didn't claim to be either Catholic or Episcopalian, but all the gravestones are for Lady someone or other, and it turns out to be a private estate chapel - although it looks a bit big for that.

Holy Trinity chapel

A tiny gate in the back wall leads out onto a kind of path to join the track up towards the hills, with walkers channelled in the approved direction with green and yellow signs.

Past the last buildings the track splits and climbs up through the woods, looking as colourful and they could in winter in the glowing brown of beech and the dark green of the gorse and evergreen trees.

Winter colours

Once the track leaves the trees it leads up over a succession of rather dilapidated gates and stiles, sticking to the edge of the wood until it runs out.

Hills ahead

From up here there's a definite Clyde valley view, with the river winding through fields, and the little pointed summit of Quothquan Law in the background.

Clyde valley and Quothquan Law

A smaller path leaves the main track to turn up by the wall, and although the bigger hills to the right were hiding themselves, there was soon a nice view back to the little hills behind me.

The way up

Little hills

It wasn't a hard climb, just a bit miserable because the weather was getting worse - low clouds blowing in from the south east bringing mist and heavier rain, and my particular pet hate of stronger winds - I consoled myself with the thought that if it got too wild I could drop down onto the little road along the valley on the other side of the hill.

My first sight of the trig post was as a glimpse through the mist, turning out to be neither as huge nor as far away as it looked in that first moment.

Misty trig point

The summit must have a glorious view on a good day, with Tinto on one side, the Culter Fells on the other, and the Pentlands in between, but right now it had no view at all, with the mist all around again.

Lamington Hill summit

I knew where I needed to go to keep to the ridge - on a bit to the left of my previous course, and don't go down anything steep - but apart from that it didn't really matter where I went, because there was no trace of a path that I could find, only heather and moss.

A glimpse of hills ahead through the mist made me convinced that I was round too far to the right, as they seemed to tower ahead over a deep drop, but as it cleared properly and proportion came back they settled down to be the little bumps of the ridge, and I realised that if anything I was slightly to the left of the direct route.

Hills ahead

From here I was never really in the mist again, although it sat quite stubbornly on all the higher hills.

In the dip I met a track - parallel wheel tracks, but fairly well trodden as well - that basically took me the rest of the way - over the bump of Overburns Hill and up Turkey Hill, where I was too lazy to go up to the summit and just stuck to the track as it skirted it.

Coming down the other side I was starting to get some nice views down valleys - little ones with streams, but also the fields in the valley around Snaip and Nisbet.

Looking into the valley

The cloud was lifting a bit more, finally - it was supposed to be sunny by now according to the forecast, but it really wasn't - and I got my first real view of the higher hills, the horseshoe leading up to Culter Fell.

Culter Fell horseshoe

Further down again and for the first time since the start the landscape ahead wasn't hiding in the cloud - the hills, and the valley running through to Kilbucho.

Hills and valleys

The track led on past the edge of a plantation of larches past the bumps of the fort on Snaip Hill, where I could see Coulter in the valley below.

Coulter

My route was more doubtful here, as the track had wound off down the other side of the hill - instead I took a fairly direct route towards the trees in the valley, not sure if it would turn out to be too steep but as it was mostly heather it was ok - although I did get a lesson in the fact that new heather is not nearly as grippy as the older kind! And then I followed the edge of the field down to the track which led out to the road.

Coulter started off with old houses with gardens full of snowdrops, then there's a part tucked in behind - where the school and the new houses are - and half squeezed in around the bridge and the bend in the road, with the pub and the old reading room building.

I'd thought about going to the pub for lunch, but when I went in it was just a bare room of restaturant tables with no one who seemed to be in charge, and even if they'd still been serving (it was a bit after 2) I wasn't really dressed for that, so instead I walked up to Wolfclyde Bridge to catch the bus to Lanark (I was on my way to Glasgow for the evening) and had a very late lunch there.

Coulter Allers House avenue

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