walkhighlands

Bruce adventuring in the Afton hills

Fionas: Blackcraig Hill
Donalds: Blackcraig Hill, Blacklorg Hill

Date walked: 09/07/2023

Time taken: 4.5 hours

Distance: 17km

Ascent: 735m

The weather up north didn't look great with thunder and lightning warnings, so we opted for more Donalds, this time more of the Glen Afton Hills on the east side of the reservoir. Looking at previous WH reports there were a lot of different route choices so I thought I'd keep my route plan fairy flexible. I wasn't sure how enjoyable these hills would be though after having visited Windy Standard and Moorbrock hill from Afton reservoir in 2022 with all the works going on around the windfarm, but today's outing was really nice, mainly because we got the hills to ourselves and Bruce the dog had a good time :D

We started from the parking area just north of the Afton reservoir, headed up to the reservoir (started my watch late, oops), and headed to the east side of the reservoir up a grassy slope to follow a faint and wet path towards Cannock Hill. We then followed the track a good way along the fence line towards the top of Blacklorg Hill, but we then struck off north towards Blackcraig Hill. At the top of Blackcraig Hill we visited the trig point and various cairns.

20230709_115429[1].jpg
Blackcraig Hill

We back-tracked towards Blacklorg hill (failed to get a photo here), and then had a fence to navigate - lifting a 25kg wriggling dog over a fence isn't always easy! A slightly soggy downhill lead us towards a 'track' running through the bealach under some pylons. I guess when they were busy with the pylon works (?) a track was needed but it has been 'undone'. It wasn't too wet so thankfully it was fairly easy to navigate across. The top of Meikledodd Hill was straight forward to reach, and I made the assumption that the random stick sticking up slightly away from the fence must be the top :lol:

20230709_130816[1].jpg
Meikledodd Hill

We backtracked slightly to a fence junction where at least Bruce could step through, and we headed towards Alwhat. It was at this point I realised how little I had noticed of the windfarms, and thought what a lovely walk it had been so far. Yes it was wet underfoot all the way, but no worse than the Southern Upland Way or other hills in the area.

20230709_131901[1].jpg
Bealach between Meikledodd Hill and Alwhat

As I was heading up Alwhat I decided to not visit Alhang, mainly because I was running short on time because Bruce at the grand old age of 12.5 years can't do the distances we did when he was younger (=no limit). We'll need to come back for Dugland anyway, so I might as well add Alhang to that outing. I was very happy to the see the first gate on the top of Alwhat, something that had been in short supply so far. In fact, there were two!

20230709_133601[1].jpg

We went through the metal one, and took a right to follow the fence down the north shoulder of Alwhat to meet yet another gate in the fence (yass). I was tentatively heading towards the reservoir, but knew there was some forestry at the bottom which I wasn't sure how easy it would be to navigate.

20230709_135120[1].jpg
CannockHill left, Blackcraig Hill middle, Blacklorg Hill right

Upon reaching the forestry, we veered left following the fence to meet another gate and to reach a track (this section was seriously wet), and took a right to follow it with the burn on our left. When we reached a bride we crossed it and followed the track along the west side of the reservoir, then back to the car where we met the first other people of the day. Once of the reasons I like the Donalds - they're nice and quiet :) What started as a bit of a bagging mission (today we made our 111th Donald / Donald Top) was a much more pleasant walk than I was expecting.


activity_11524096835.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts


Click to mark this as a great report. Register or Login
free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).



Linton Hill from the east

Attachment(s) Sub 2000s: Linton Hill
Date walked: 03/12/2022
Distance: 5.5km
Ascent: 186m
Views: 505

Brucebob


User avatar

Munros: 9
Corbetts: 18
Fionas: 23
Donalds: 67+44
Hewitts: 1
Sub 2000: 56
Islands: 6
Long Distance routes: West Highland Way    Borders Abbeys Way    Fife Coastal Path    Great Glen Way    Southern Upland Way    St Cuthbert's Way    Berwickshire Coastal Path   



Filter reports


Statistics

2023

Trips: 1
Distance: 17 km
Ascent: 735m
Donalds: 2

2022

Trips: 1
Distance: 5.5 km
Ascent: 186m
Sub2000s: 1


Joined: Jun 18, 2018
Last visited: Mar 24, 2024
Total posts: 2 | Search posts