Thursday 24 September 2009

Chrichton's Cairn

I parked in the carpark at the bottom of Campsie Glen. The path started gravelled and neat, the scenery was pretty and so



I was expecting something a bit more home-counties than usual, what with the car park and all, but a few hundred yards and I'm clearly still in Scotland:



A bit of muddy scrambling gets you to these rather Tolkeinesque steps, leading up to the plunge pool of a small waterfall.



This is the waterfall that steepens the path.



And above the plunge pool the path became a little steeper and a bit of a scramble, not exactly paved!



Above the fall the valley opens out and the path climbs to cross the main road and up the edge of the hill to Crichton's Cairn.



Classic Glasgow weather, sun, drifting rain and (slightly) broken cloud



Then it's back down the hill, across the main carpark, scramble down the burnside path and back through the raised hands to that neat tidy path to the car...

Stockiemuir



No they're not palm tree fronds, though Autumn in Glasgow is about a month behind the SE of England and it's still quite warm. Which is nice, especially as Spring will be late. Stockiemuir is just north of the farm shop where we get our gluten free sausages. Not as good as from Pickerings in Norfolk, but more convenient!

Oh, Loch Lomond just visible in the background.

Thursday 10 September 2009

Ben Lomond


The top of Ben Lomond is on the right, the slightly spikier peak on the left is Ptarmigan. I walked up the main path to Ben Lomond peak then down the scramble to Ptarmigan. There is a path down from here making a nice circular walk. The weather started glorious for the climb.



Of course the views down Loch Lomond are always beautiful.




Even as the cloud cover builds. This is Scotland after all!



Ben Lomond is the southernmost Munro and is basically in the outer suburbs of Glasgow. OK, perhaps as far out as Potters Bar from central London.

So it gets a lot of feet and has to be managed. Hence the stepping stones at 800m above sea level...



The hills carry on to the North, more walking to be done there.




And of course it rained...