87: raw fife
at the end of january 2012 we stayed in edinburgh, but i left the city for two long walks. the first was from kinross to glenrothes via three marilyns in the lomond hills. i had had a brief conversation with a bloke in a bookshop who looked a keen hiker (he was perusing something alpine) the previous day, telling him i was going to the lomond hills in fife tomorrow, but he insisted on treating me like a numpty because he had them confused with ben lomond.
kinross is quiet once you've wandered far enough east of the M90 (or the E15 for europhiles). just west of the town is the venue for t in the park, but that only occurred to me just now. looking at a map you would think it would be dominated by loch leven but it's very flat here (not at all your typical scottish loch). i was a good mile out of town before it became visible. a further mile and i finally found a suitable spot for a piss. after more asphalt, there was a strangely sited trig pillar in wester balgedie (not on a hill at all, but it did offer a bench for a nice sit down with a view over the loch). in easter balgedie i struggled to find a decent route on to bishop hill. a dog was fairly insistent that i shouldn't take the obvious farm track and followed me for quite a distance to ensure i was going to stay off its patch. or perhaps it was desperately trying to persuade me to play.
i ended up fence climbing to get through a few fields before a very steep pull up to a plateau as a shaft of sunlight pierced the gloom over the loch. having sweated up and peeled off layers, i was suddenly subject to the raw easterly wind. soon reclad, i headed for the windswept summit of bishop hill (461m) across hard frozen ground. the going was unsually fast, with none of the knee deep heather i'm used to on hills of this height in the west, or at least it was until i descended into the sheltered cleft between bishop hill and west lomond. the col looked wet so i dropped a few extra contour lines through the heather, heading more directly towards the summit of west lomond. i crossed the burn in glen vale before passing what remains of john knox's pulpit, a former venue for illicit religious meetings destroyed by the local council a decade ago on safety grounds. dangerous rocks! hopefully highland council won't follow suit.
another rock feature, the devil's burdens, looked like a pennine transplant or a vision of dartmoor. beyond this the going was easy until a large summit mound, the 522m top of fife encrusted with a thin layer of icy snow. gently inclined moorland tracks link the base of the mound and a similar point below its neighbour east lomond, with barely enough reascent for the latter to qualify as a marilyn. a couple of sour women glowered at me as i crossed the road which passes near the col, but a bloke on east lomond was friendlier, picking out some lower hills amid the gloom. unusually the trig was considerably below the 448 m summit and took a little finding.
the descent took me past an old kiln, a considerable brick structure a couple of centuries past its industrial sell-by date. it must have been a tough place to work in the winter. i descended along a long lane with the twinkling lights of glenrothes a worrying distance away. the usual race against time to catch my intended coach: even with a map, the last few minutes were extremely confusing, a new town old shopping centre maze, cumbernauld on fast forward. i caught the bus with 20 miles under my belt and a long walk planned for the next day. the blue digital clock display was illegible as we sped through gordon brown territory in the dark. must be getting on a bit.
kinross is quiet once you've wandered far enough east of the M90 (or the E15 for europhiles). just west of the town is the venue for t in the park, but that only occurred to me just now. looking at a map you would think it would be dominated by loch leven but it's very flat here (not at all your typical scottish loch). i was a good mile out of town before it became visible. a further mile and i finally found a suitable spot for a piss. after more asphalt, there was a strangely sited trig pillar in wester balgedie (not on a hill at all, but it did offer a bench for a nice sit down with a view over the loch). in easter balgedie i struggled to find a decent route on to bishop hill. a dog was fairly insistent that i shouldn't take the obvious farm track and followed me for quite a distance to ensure i was going to stay off its patch. or perhaps it was desperately trying to persuade me to play.
i ended up fence climbing to get through a few fields before a very steep pull up to a plateau as a shaft of sunlight pierced the gloom over the loch. having sweated up and peeled off layers, i was suddenly subject to the raw easterly wind. soon reclad, i headed for the windswept summit of bishop hill (461m) across hard frozen ground. the going was unsually fast, with none of the knee deep heather i'm used to on hills of this height in the west, or at least it was until i descended into the sheltered cleft between bishop hill and west lomond. the col looked wet so i dropped a few extra contour lines through the heather, heading more directly towards the summit of west lomond. i crossed the burn in glen vale before passing what remains of john knox's pulpit, a former venue for illicit religious meetings destroyed by the local council a decade ago on safety grounds. dangerous rocks! hopefully highland council won't follow suit.
another rock feature, the devil's burdens, looked like a pennine transplant or a vision of dartmoor. beyond this the going was easy until a large summit mound, the 522m top of fife encrusted with a thin layer of icy snow. gently inclined moorland tracks link the base of the mound and a similar point below its neighbour east lomond, with barely enough reascent for the latter to qualify as a marilyn. a couple of sour women glowered at me as i crossed the road which passes near the col, but a bloke on east lomond was friendlier, picking out some lower hills amid the gloom. unusually the trig was considerably below the 448 m summit and took a little finding.
the descent took me past an old kiln, a considerable brick structure a couple of centuries past its industrial sell-by date. it must have been a tough place to work in the winter. i descended along a long lane with the twinkling lights of glenrothes a worrying distance away. the usual race against time to catch my intended coach: even with a map, the last few minutes were extremely confusing, a new town old shopping centre maze, cumbernauld on fast forward. i caught the bus with 20 miles under my belt and a long walk planned for the next day. the blue digital clock display was illegible as we sped through gordon brown territory in the dark. must be getting on a bit.