Gloom, Care and Sorrow - Yes it's another Early Ooters Ooting.
Distance 14.7 km
Seven early Ooters (Alan, Allan, Ian, Johnny, Paul, Rex and Robert) gathered at Robert's to sample some delicious home-baked gingerbread and coffee. Despite the forecast, which predicted some rain and strong winds, it was decided to go ahead with the planned return to the Ochils for which Paul had produced a route and had loaded up his GPS.
Two cars sufficed and everyone met up again, alongside the Dollar Burn, in the middle of the Clackmannanshire village at around 10.30.
It was an attractive start to the walk, with roads fronted by imposing villas running up both sides of the burn and with glimpses of the Playfair-designed Dollar Academy (day fees £9,000 pa, full board £21,000 pa) with its Doric facade.
Soon we joined the path ascending the Dollar Glen and the climbing started. At a junction in the path, Robert was attracted by a path which rose steeply out of the glen, away from the burn, and initially going in the opposite direction we wanted .... and for whatever reason, we followed him. The path led us to a road which climbed up to Castle Campbell, which we reached in some ten minutes.
Overlooked by Gloom Hill, Castle Campbell was known as the Castle of Gloom until James IV approved the name change. It was the Lowland stronghold of Clan Campbell, upon whose members the successive titles of Earl, Marquis and Duke of Argyll were bestowed. Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox stayed at the castle, although not as a couple, and in 1654 it was sacked by Scots in retaliation for Argyll's support of Cromwell.
Paths went off in various directions, and having studied a map of the area on display close to the castle we chose to descend a steep gully through which ran the Burn of Sorrow. Climbing out of the gully we could see the terrain opening up, with Bank Hill, our first target in full view. But before that - elevenses.
Refreshed, we set off again with Paul choosing to follow one side of the fence whilst the rest kept to the other side. Was it something he said; or perhaps they didn't trust his map-reading.
We skirted round Bank Hill (346 m), and unusually for our sorties into the hills we saw quite a number of walkers out and about.
The great mass of King's Seat Hill now came into view, and when the path took a sharp right turn the climb began. The Ochils rise steeply from the Carse of Forth and King's Seat was certainly steep. The group was soon stretched out along its lower slopes with Rex, naturally, in the lead (it had already been pointed out to him that last week, with both he and Davie absent, the pace had been leisurely and the group had remained largely intact throughout the walk!). We stopped to chat to a walker who was descending - he told us that he had been on Ben Buck at 8 am! - and he reported heavy sleet showers on the tops. Certainly the wind was getting up and there was rain in the air.
The steepness of the climb gave rise to several false summits - very demoralising - but eventually the bulk of the group reached the true summit (648 m) to find a well-constructed shelter which deflected the worst of the wind. And it was lunchtime. Johnny and Allan joined us later!
As we prepared to leave, a newly-arrived couple got ready to move in - the woman and the person of indeterminate sex had been close to us at the foot of the hill but clearly our pace had been too much for them.
Beyond the summit of King's Seat the path became less clear but we headed off along the plateau in the general direction of Maddy Moss. As we began to descend we were beset by a very unpleasant hail squall, with the lumps of ice pinging off our few exposed parts. We had passed by Maddy Moss, under Andrew Gannell Hill, on the descent to Alva on our last visit to the area so it all looked familiar.
Any paths that existed looked to be not much more than sheep tracks but Paul and Rex strode out, GPS in hand in search of the boundary fence (Perthshire/Clackmannanshire?). It was duly located and the clear path running alongside the fence was followed. Ian remarked on the ancient metal stile crossing the fence at one point, whilst everyone remarked upon the complexity of the construction of the modern stiles and fences.
As we turned the corner to climb Tarmangie Hill we were again assailed by wind and hail, but as before, it was short lived. The sky which had looked ominously black began to brighten a little. Pointing to a hill, Robert stated that he thought we would have been going 'that way'. It had to be pointed out to him that he was looking at King's Seat which we had left an hour earlier!
We made the very slight detour away from the fence to bag the summit of Tarmangie (645 m) and we had clear views of the Lomond Hills and Loch Leven. We left the fence to head towards our final top of the day - Whitewisp Hill (643 m) - then began our descent. We headed for the east side of Saddle Hill, but the reasonable path we had been following soon petered out. We descended as best we could down the steep slopes, pausing for a break at a large sheepfold (sorry Jimmy and Davie - a large fank).
We had considered heading across what looked like pretty boggy ground towards Castle Campbell, but the more observant amongst us had spotted a cart track leading from the fank to a crossing of the Burn of Care and then joining up with the track shown on our maps - a much easier route to the Castle of Gloom. So that's the way we went.
We were soon back at Castle Campbell and chose to take the route down the Dollar Glen which we had missed on the way up. To some the path under the castle was reminiscent of the descent from Abbaye St Martin du Canigou. Others, lacking imagination, were merely abusive.
The descent of the glen was spectacular - especially the view of the burn flowing through enormous cleft rocks. This was accessible only be using a wooden walkway funded by a bequest from a lady whose name your scribe has forgotten. Thank you madam.
And soon we were back in the village. There were lots of well-scrubbed blazer-wearing young people around. Rex excepted, it was just so reminiscent of our teaching days. ... not.
Speaking of Rex ..... an account of the day would not be complete without a reference to his use of skills he undoubtedly learned in the Australian Diplomatic Corps. The way he defused the situation with that unreasonable 98-year-old local drew gasps of awe from all of us. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, eat your heart out!
We decided to make a quick getaway from Dollar. Not because we feared the 98-year-old was rounding up a geriatric posse but to avoid the worst of the rush hour around Glasgow and East Kilbride. It was decided to adjourn to the King's Arms in Fenwick. This we did, and what a pleasant howff it is. It was all of 6.30 when we left the pub - the end of a long, testing, but enjoyable day.
1 comment:
This is a pleasure to read. Some forty years ago, I had the experience of "false summit" climbing whitewisp.
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