Another weekend, another weather front passing over Scotland, another windy day. I had a slightly sore throat, Kevin of course wondered, could it be the dreaded coronavirus? Obviously not as I had no other symptoms and no contact with anybody who had traveled abroad recently. But to be sure we wouldn't catch anything nasty, when it came to picking a route for Sunday, we decided to drive east to Correen Hills, from now on known also as Correen (no virus) Hills

The circuit from Tullynessle is a pleasant walk of some 15km, mostly on ATV tracks, and includes one Sub'2 Marylin, Lord Arthur's Hill. I have no clue who Lord Arthur was, assuming it was not the legendary King Arthur (wrong end of the UK ), maybe some local noble? Whoever he was, he must have been famous enough to deserve for a hill to be named after him. Maye he had once lived in a small 16th century towerhouse at the entrance to the glen, called Terpersie Castle. It was once a ruin but was restored in 1980-ties. I couldn't get any good photos of it myself as it is surrounded by trees, but the Canmore website has a good number of pictures, including those of the ruin before restoration.

We parked at a small grassy car park at the turning for Dubston, followed WH route in clockwise direction. Mostly tracks, boggy in places, but generally good going:

When we arrived, there was once car already parked, I noticed it had Walkhighlands badge so I wonder who else was wandering about Correen Hills that windy Sunday?...

The route starts from the bridge leading past Dubston Farm:

On the gate, there was a note "Responsible walkers welcome". Hmmm. I consider myself responsible enough to be allowed on this hill!
Past the farm, the track turned boggy for a short distance, but it was probably just the melting snow...

Once past a forest plantation on Manabattock Hill, conditions underfoot improved. We crossed a small burn and started the straightforward ascent to Lord Arthur's Hill:

Looking back down. At this point weather was fine, maybe a bit windy but much better than we had expected in the morning:

After about 100m of ascent we passed another small forest plantation. Through the trees, we saw the local beauty, Bennachie, on the eastern horizon:

I absolutely loved Bennachie when we did it a couple of years back and would happily climb it again. Since our last visit I found out, there is a plane crash site there to visit, that only whetted my appetite to go back!
At the moment, I was busy hopping across the last remnants of snow on Lord Arthur's Hill:

The track took us to a large stone shelter on the summit. The highest point of the Sub is a few meters west, marked with a trig point, but we decided to hide in the shelter for a few minutes as it was quite blowy up here:

The views from here are typical Abeerdeenshire-style, maybe a bit flat but still lovely. Tap O'Noth is an interesting feature to the north. We had climbed it as a quickie in winter conditions, but never actually explored it properly (maybe a traverse?), so another local hill to return to!

A wider northern pano:

Typical Abeerdeenshire-style view:

Morven and Mona Gowan to the south:

The neighbouring Sub.2 Marylin - Coiliochbhar Hill:

After a short snack break in the shelter, we walked to the trigpoint to claim our 45th Sub'2 Marylin. No fireworks, but another hill bagged!

A path leads from the trigpoint in the western direction...

...but it soon peters out in the heather. We spotted the main ATV track just a short distance away to the left, so dropped across the heather to be on easy ground again.
Looking back to the summit:

The track continues to Edinbanchory Hill, where we turned right to continue the traverse. It was still windy but not drastically so and Kevin was happy as a bunny:

...at least until he almost stepped on a frog. The poor creature was too paralyzed to escape (or simply too lazy to move its backside from the track! )
Lucky you, I'm not French

We left the frog to guard the track and aimed for Brux Hill, which is no more than the continuation of Edinbanchory Hill. We had good views west to The Buck from here:

The distant Ben Rinnes:

Views towards Badingair Hill:

Once on the slopes of Badingair Hill, the track turns east and leads back into the glen. We stopped for a short break in the abandoned Correen Quarry:

View back to the Correen Hills from the track near the quarry:

On the way down we saw (and heard!) several skylarks singing their throats out - spring is definitely coming!
Sunny afternoon:

A lovely circuit and definitely worth the drive from Inverness, even if it's just a Sub2000-er.

Three days later and my throat is back to normal so hopefully, Correen Hills turned out to be Correen (no virus) Hills. Fingers crossed, next week is good weather-wise, we took some time off for early spring hillwalking and it would be such a shame to spend it indoors cursing another storm.