Thursday 19th September 2024

Clear blue skies and being stuck inside all day meant a sudden last minute decision to head for a local hill for sunset, to hopefully catch some of the late September good weather. I packed my bag after an early tea like the Tasmanian Devil and set off on the short half hour drive to Glen Lomond car park for John Knox's Pulpit.

Sunset was about 7.20pm and I set off walking at 6.10pm, so was confident I would make the summit of West Lomond for sunset. What an evening it was, absolutely stunning on the approach to the Pulpit.


The approach path to John Knox's Pulpit


Evening light on West Lomond

On the approach to the Pulpit I had a rather amusing encounter with two girls in full instagram posing mode, one wearing the well-known hill attire of a long white dress in full glamour mode giving it big licks with the pouting. I think we all had a wee smile at the situation, said hello and I marched on towards my target. Gaining height quickly, I approached the summit in less than an hour and oh what sights lay before me. I've been up West Lomond heaps of times, but had never seen the hills to the north and west so clear. And I was in plenty time for sunset, so I was able to deploy my flask of coffee and have a chat with a couple other guys up there.


A few sheep enjoying the hazy light before sunset


Awaiting sunset

When I arrived at the summit, I noted some haar coming in from the east in the distance. In an incredibly short space of time, this approached and covered much of east Fife and soon began to swirl around East Lomond and everything south of West Lomond. It was fantastic to watch and something I never even contemplated happening that evening.


East Lomond trying to fight off the haar


Sunset from the trig point

As the sun went down, an almost full inversion had now covered much of Fife, and even the rest of the Lomond Hills, with Bishop Hill coming and going in the mist. It was absolutely spectacular, I was so glad I made the last minute decision to go for a walk.


Only the trees on Munduff Hill poking out of the mist


Watching the cloud flow over Bishop Hill


Sunset behind Ben Ledi


All but West Lomond now covered


My summit companion taking some shots of his dog, which I am going to guess will be framed on a wall now already!


Zoomed shot to Stuc a'Chroin, Ben Vorlich and Ben More


Despite my best efforts willing it on, the cloud never moved far past the hills


In all my excitement looking south and north, I failed no notice the moon rise to the east. When I finally noticed it, the moon looked massive, and nothing my phone camera could really capture. The same could be said for all the views in fairness, no phone camera could ever do that justice.

After well over an hour on the summit, I finally scraped myself off my perch and fired up the headtorch for the descent. It was pretty dark already by the time I left the summit. Walking in the dark is grand, but descending into the moist cloud was not much fun. It's all pretty good paths however so I was able to batter on down and before long I had passed the pulpit once more and the stars were out on route back to the car.

What. An. Evening! I could have stayed up there for hours. I did take three jackets in case the northern lights started kicking off, but now that's just being greedy. This was a perfect evening, and thoroughly enjoyed.