I was attracted to the area by the sun. Dundee always seems to get more than Perth & it had been grey for too long. I arrived by 13:45 and set off with the dog, almost immediately turning the wrong way out of the woodland, thereby doing a somehwat bigger two sided triangle than I should have & to the east rather than the west. Realising the mistake was fixable without retracing my steps we met up with the right path to Auchterouse at the bottom of that climb.



I soon discovered I'd let myself in for more than I'd bargained for, especially as I began to see the other two points yet to come, but it was a glorious afternoon and I pressed on.



The trees surrounding the Auchterhouse summit were striking. Stark figures they appeared to me with gaunt bodies, arms outstretched and furious, wild hair. Guardians of Auchterhouse?



I pushed on to the view and was up from the carpark in 38 minutes. As I took photos the dog started to bark towards the northwest. The thought that there might be stranger danger up here made me look about nervously. It's amazing how quickly the mind can leap to the least likely possibility. I could see no one at all. The dog was scared though, still standing barking at something past the summit. I was feeling more than ready to leave. He bolted back down the way we had come. Then, still within the trees he stopped and started barking to the southeast, where I knew there was no-one having passed that way. I was getting a distinctly eerie feeling and was happy to leave the trees. Auchterhouse is an ancient fort. The following week I read 'The Box of Delights' for the first time, with its description of a wolf attack upon inhabitants of just such a hill fort. Did they face wolves here? But even on the day I couldn't help wonder: is it haunted?

En route to the next summit, I took a photo of rock embedded on the path to remind myself about ice. Later, at home, I noticed that BELLA appeared to have been etched into the stone.



Though it was not late I was very conscious of the light slowly fading. It took 19 minutes to reach the next summit.



There is a memorial there to Sydney Scroggie. I read about him later - what an inspirational man.



There were still nearly two hours to dark and I felt I was making good time so I continued towards Craigowl. The path was rough, then steep.



Turning away from the fence too sharply at the bottom of Balkello we sloshed up boggy ground on a faint path. Reaching a small bluff I knew where I was and where the path should be so cut back & up across the heather, the dog bounding, furiously. Sure enough, we found the right track.



We made it to the summit in 30 mins from Balkello. The dog flopped over on to his back, paws aloft and rolled about, seeming to echo my sentiment of delight and relief exactly! The views, as all along this ridge, were magnificent but there was no time to linger.



I was starting to get a little tired now and concerned about the light and my low battery. I cursed that I had come out in a rush and again stupidly not brought a proper map. It was just after 3pm. The return path was there but faint. We followed it to a steep escarpment. I had only been following the highlighted route, not the instructions & now I didn't have enough battery. Besides, there were cows below. I always give cows a very wide berth and the dog, a substantial collie-like lump, has more than once had to be carried past them. Desperate to escape the cows he dragged me fast across the side of Balluderon hill to a fence, no path in evidence. There was no stile. I lifted him over the barbed wire and climbed over at a post myself. We were now in deep bracken. There was 1% left on my phone. I expected it to die any moment and decided to make my own judgements.

As luck would have it we soon found and followed what appeared to be not a footpath so much as the course of a recently flooded burn. This took us to a clear track. Judging that turning left down it would take us too far east of the woodland, I cut across instead, following what was now a distinct small path. There was the woodland ahead. I then spent half an hour wandering round it looking for the carpark, the main focus being to find it before a) darkness and b) the gate was locked at 5pm. I found myself on a woodland path beside a field & checked the phone just in case. It had been in battery saver mode and miraculously the 1% was still there. Quickly I pulled up a photo I'd taken of the woodland area map from the information board and realised where I probably was. Within 10 minutes we were back at the carpark to my considerable relief. It was 16:15. The whole escapade took 2.5 hours.