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A day in the Ochil Hills

A day in the Ochil Hills


Postby rockhopper » Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:28 pm

Route description: Ben Cleuch circular

Fionas included on this walk: Ben Cleuch

Donalds included on this walk: Ben Cleuch, Blairdenon Hill, Innerdownie, King's Seat Hill, Tarmangie Hill

Date walked: 04/06/2017

Time taken: 8.5 hours

Distance: 32.5 km

Ascent: 1580m

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Ochil Hills activelog 4jun2017.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Last edited by rockhopper on Sun Feb 03, 2019 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A day in the Ochil Hills

Postby kmai1961 » Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:50 am

Some good pics, there, RH. I did a traverse from Glen Devon to Sherrifmuir (roughly) with a friend a few weeks ago, and we saw....not a thing, start to finish. It's nice to see what the hills actually look like; I've been to the Ochils a few times, and have yet to strike good weather. As you say, they're close to home, and full of various options.
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Re: A day in the Ochil Hills

Postby rockhopper » Wed Jun 07, 2017 1:00 pm

kmai1961 wrote:Some good pics, there, RH. I did a traverse from Glen Devon to Sherrifmuir (roughly) with a friend a few weeks ago, and we saw....not a thing, start to finish. It's nice to see what the hills actually look like; I've been to the Ochils a few times, and have yet to strike good weather. As you say, they're close to home, and full of various options.


Cheers :) I did have a think about a traverse as it looked quite an efficient way to cover them all but couldn't get a practical way of getting back to the start. Am hoping to get back though, eg to include The Law - cheers :)
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Re: A day in the Ochil Hills

Postby Dave Hewitt » Wed Jun 07, 2017 4:39 pm

Good effort. Re the optimum route round all nine Donald Tops and getting back to the start, I've been thinking about this recently as despite loads of Ochiling over the years I think I've only had one all-nine outing (part of a traverse of every 2000ft bump my pals and I could find, 23 of them we reckoned). I'm intending another wander round all nine soon, clockwise, and I reckon the best starting point could well be Alva, beginning with the Torry/Bengengie route on to Blairdenon. That removes one big out-and-back, and another tweak is to go direct to King's Seat from Andrew Gannel then across to Tarmangie - good paths all the way as you'll have seen re the latter part. Then after Innerdownie take the mown Woodland Trust path down to the south end of the Quey reservoir, drop to Castle Campbell and Dollar Glen, then walk along the cycleways back to Alva - I think that's probably quicker/easier than staying high.

That's what I'm going to do sometime in the next month or two, anyway. There's a good path curving round from the Law towards Andrew Gannel, so that saves a bit of doubling back.

Good to see you visited the Cuthbertson Tiger Moth memorial, always a poignant spot. I quite often pop up Blairdenon from the Sheriffmuir side (including last Sunday, the same day you were there, coincidentally), and I always pause at the memorial to pay my respects. It's coming up to 60 years since the crash happened.
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Re: A day in the Ochil Hills

Postby mash tun » Thu Jun 08, 2017 1:57 pm

Perhaps something like this ?

Ochils.gpx
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Re: A day in the Ochil Hills

Postby rockhopper » Thu Jun 08, 2017 2:08 pm

Dave Hewitt wrote:I think that's probably quicker/easier than staying high.....That's what I'm going to do sometime in the next month or two, anyway.

Looks an interesting alternative - I hadn't considered it as I was looking to keep my start/end points relatively close together. The above in gps planner (thanks mt) suggests that it may not actually be that much longer as it doesn't have as much in the way of out/back and may have a little less ascent even including The Law - cheers :)
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Re: A day in the Ochil Hills

Postby Dave Hewitt » Thu Jun 08, 2017 3:12 pm

mash tun wrote:Perhaps something like this ?

Yes, thanks - that's good. Only slight tweak might be that on arriving in Dollar from the glen if you go along the back road this continues as a path to join the A91 further west than the map shows. There are then a few minutes along the pavement before the cycleway can be joined at the big layby, but it's shorter than cutting down to join it in Dollar itself. You could also shorten it, at least effortwise, by missing out Torry/Mid Cairn/Bengengie and heading all the way up the Alva Glen track to near the sheepfold and then aiming for Blairdenon from there, but that would miss out possibly the best bit and wouldn't save heaps of time anyway.

Overall, my thinking is to use good ground/paths where possible, hence the Innerdownie descent to the Quey pass. As/when I give it a go (once the recent soggy stuff has had chance to dry out), I'm reckoning about 8hr for the circuit, without any rush and with a couple of proper food/lounging stops. Maybe 8hr30. When my pals Ken and Mike and I did the 23 tops thing (August 2009, and all the 600m tops rather than the 2000ft ones as earlier stated), we did it as a linear Sheriffmuir-Castlehill traverse and took just over 8hr of which 7hr was spent walking.

There's also the thought that doing it from the north, starting at the Frandy road-end, might be quite an efficient way to visit all nine tops, given that the main spine curves that way. Might well experiment with both options, and will report back if so. I've done various sixes and sevens and the occasional eight, as per rockhopper, but just that one nine, so it feels overdue - especially as the overall tally for all nine currently stands at 3731.

RTC wrote:You'll be wearing a dress, of course. I hear that this is now de rigueur for Ochils wanderers.

You've lost me - have those Beinn Fhionnlaidh punters been in the Ochils as well? The Hasidic Jews with their old-style hats and coats and retro pushchairs tend not to roll up until August.
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Re: A day in the Ochil Hills

Postby Dave Hewitt » Thu Jun 08, 2017 4:09 pm

RTC wrote:I was referring to the Beinn Fhionnlaih walk of the OMC and making a daft joke. - Not an unkind one I hope!

Ah, hadn't realised they were from the Ochils MC - I only skim the Walkhighlands fashion pages. I'm with you now!
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