Anyway we set off into the rain with the traffic rather subdued by the bad weather. Up to Alyth and our first hill - Mile Hill. I'd decided we'd do this from the south, which made it quicker to get to Backwater Reservoir for our second, and used Robert Phillips' route, which begins at a tarmacked road heading to a farm and an artists studio. Some buildings to pass, then across a cowfield and onto the hillside proper. Summit has no distinguishing features and the mist was down. Headed back the same way.
P7030673 by Al, on Flickr
P7030674 by Al, on FlickrMile Hill
P7030675 by Al, on Flickr
P7030676 by Al, on FlickrDrove a few miles along to the dam at Backwater, round to a marked parking place on the east side. This is an ideal spot to start Creigh Hill - there's a gate just to the south of the parking area and an ATV track/sheep tracks that take you along to the summit. Again back down the same way, an hour in all.
P7030677 by Al, on Flickr
P7030679 by Al, on Flickr
P7030680 by Al, on FlickrThe next pair of hills, Hare Cairn and Crock, had caused me to break a little sweat in the planning process. There were several reports of how awful the terrain was, especially getting through felled tree areas. However, I found one by Gordon Ballatyne which seemed to be the easiest - drive to Freuchies and use the ample parking area for the ski trails, then take the forestry road up the middle of the two hills. It was still raining with clag covering the tops when we set off.
The initial track is fine. We chose to go up Crock first - using forestry track then an extraction track amongst the new plantation. Wasn't bad, considering. There's an area of felled/windblown old trees to be traversed or avoided before the summit can be attained - we kept to the edge of the mature trees and had a wee tussle to get through to open hillside then got to the top across heather.
Hare Cairn
P7030681 by Al, on Flickr
P7030682 by Al, on FlickrWee bit of difficulty here
P7030683 by Al, on FlickrOut of the trees
P7030684 by Al, on FlickrA crock on Crock (I'll pay for that
)
P7030685 by Al, on FlickrFollowed our ascent path more or less to get back down to the central track. Amused an inquisitive herd of cows by giving them a song, though Allison upset them by singing a rude one and they ran off. Continued over the bridge then used another forest track to begin the ascent of Hare Cairn. At the single dead tree we turned left up another extraction track to reach the summit - pretty easy going.
The dead tree
P7030686 by Al, on FlickrHare Cairn
P7030687 by Al, on FlickrCrock from Hare
P7040689 by Al, on Flickr
P7040690 by Al, on FlickrWe headed back the way we'd come in and drove a few miles along the road towards Blacklunans, where we stayed in an eco-campsite once apon a time, and picked off Meall Mor from the roadside. The woods at the start were crawling with pheasants. Followed the treeline/fence line up and then back down. Mount Blair in the background.
P7040691 by Al, on Flickr
P7040693 by Al, on Flickr
P7040694 by Al, on FlickrThen it was a stop off at Hill of Persie. I hadn't actually planned to add this one to our list and wasn't sure what route I had in my GPS - I recalled that Rodmeister had used a route from the ski hire place, but the one I had was more direct (probably Phillips again). We therefore parked in a layby beside a gate and went over an empty cowfield on the west side of Glen Shee to reach this one. Reasonable going, apart from a sharp descent just before the summit, which we skirted round on the return leg.
P7040695 by Al, on Flickr
P7040700 by Al, on Flickr
P7040701 by Al, on Flickr
P7040704 by Al, on Flickr
P7040705 by Al, on FlickrOur last two were in Perthshire, not Angus: Deuchray Hill and the more awkward Creag nam Mial. I'd decided to take a route from Guay, which was considerably shorter than attempting this pair from Dunkeld. Most of it was on track, according to the OS map. The area is honeycombed with tracks on the map - I didn't know what state they would be in on the ground. We parked about a kilometre up the Guay road from the A9, where there's parking for half a dozen or more cars, and set out on the good track, passing a number of walkers, including a couple of lads with big packs and a wheeled trolley thing - God knows where they were going. Some rather nice scenery to walk through, some of it reminiscent of paths in the Cairngorms. We rounded on Deuchray Hill, which looked appealing across Lochan na Beinne. On the way down we ran into Bod and Val, and had a good old natter.
P7040706 by Al, on FlickrDeuchray Hill
P7040707 by Al, on Flickr
P7040709 by Al, on FlickrLoch Ordie
P7040710 by Al, on FlickrBod & Val
P7040711 by Al, on FlickrWe continued around to the east of Loch Ordie (which sadly we didn't really see, except from at the top of Deuchray Hill) and made for Creag nam Mial. Track was fine, though there was the matter of the Buckny Burn to cross, after a night of rain. We took a line up towards Creag nam Mial, following the stone wall and deerfence, managed to get across the burn using the wooden supports for the fence and traipsed on through heather to eventually reach the summit. There's an old building just shy of the top, presumably a sheiling. Nice views and big skies from up there. The descent was a little bit hideous - over bog/heather/tussock which didn't please Allision - would probably have been easier to retrace our ascent route. Anyway, we got back to the path and followed a succession of farm tracks to get back to the car.
rather overgrown path
P7040712 by Al, on Flickr
P7050714 by Al, on FlickrCreag nam Mial
P7050715 by Al, on Flickr
P7050717 by Al, on Flickr
P7050718 by Al, on Flickr
P7050719 by Al, on Flickr
P7050721 by Al, on Flickr
P7050723 by Al, on Flickr
P7050725 by Al, on FlickrNice to get out again, despite the rather less than summery weather, at least the midges and clegs were elsewhere
