Only six intrepid Ooters were available to make the the longish car journey down the motorway to climb one of our favourite hills, namely Culter Fell. Davie McM remembers that the first time we climbed this hill, there were likewise only six of us, namely Bob, Davie, Peter the original three Ooters who were joined that day by some newcomers to the group Jimmy, Johnny and Rex. I wonder how many walks we've done since then?
It's interesting to note that although the hill is spelled Culter Fell, the village with its inn and school is known as Coulter with an extra 'o'.
The weather forecast for the day was promising; rain was not forecast until 4pm; however we experienced the whole gamut:- sunshine, mist, cold wind and latterly quite heavy rain. However most of the walk was extremely pleasant indeed. There are nine old grouse buts between the bottom of the hill and the top of the first rise and a rest was called for at each and every one; after an hour and a half in the car, it fairly tests your lung power on the first bit of the Fell. However we reached the trig point about an hour and a quarter after we'd set out which, believe it or not, was about the same time we took almost 13 years ago. Not bad for a group of old joukers (AMcQ excluded from the 'old').
We enjoyed a cuppa on our usual slope looking down in to the valley. Visibility was good and Loch Talla and Dollar Law could be seen, although wisps of mists were floating past us as we sat, creating a very picturesque scene.
After coffee we set off, not down towards the reservoir this time, but down in a northerly (I think- compass is no' very good!) direction and then veered east to take in King Bank Head. By this time, the wind was getting up, indicative of the pending rainstorm. We dropped off the top to shelter and have lunch and luckily we had just finished eating when the rain hit us accompanied by mist.
We wasted no time in retracing our tracks back down to the bottom of Culter and then proceeded back down the track to Birthwood Farm and the cars. All in all, it had taken about four and a quarter hours and by the time we got back the rain had ceased and we were in jovial mood.
A good hour's banter and FRT were had in in the Crown Hotel in Biggar, a very nicely appointed pub. Davie McM brought in a football quiz he had composed which Gus and Jimmy made short work of. However the challenge is: Can our resident Scottish football expert, Mr Paul Crankshaw of that ilk, achieve a perfect score? We shall see.
report: DMcM
photos: Alan McQ
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