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Routes shown and parking mentioned on this website are those used by the author. Readers heading for the summits are responsible for their own choices.
Playing the Game - Stones #11 - #20
Wednesday 7th October 2020.
#11. A lovely walk, but summit's wrong! A sunny break in the recent not-great weather encouraged us to get the boots back on and head out to place another Stone. Breaking new ground, we headed out for Hillfoot Hill [HfH] (GR 969006) which can be seen from the surrounding area, rising to the NE above Dollar. We headed off from the car park and followed the obvious forestry road all the way up to the north side of the hill - there is a complete loop around the hill, although that is not marked on the 1:50000 OS map. This turned out to be a real wee gem of a hill for great views - over Fife, over to the Lothians with the Pentlands in the distance and south and west over Clackmannanshire. On the way back down the west side of the hill, there were great views up Glenquey looking north and the side of King's Seat to the west as we made our way downhill into the stiff breeze. Today: 2 hrs 50 mins, 6 km and 275m
(Running totals: 28 hrs, 55 km and over 2,845m)
Parking and access: we met quite a few people and dogs out on the forestry road loop, and it is obviously well used by the local population; there are various footpath options available too. There is a fairly big parking area marked on the OS map off the Upper Hillfoot Road heading north east from Dollar and the entrance to the forestry road is on the left about 300 metres away. Of course, it is possible to approach this hill from Castle Campbell, where there is some parking available.
Placing the stone. Well, this is where things went a bit pear shaped! Despite my having read on a web page somewhere a recent report from someone who had found a route to the summit, we were unfortunately not able to repeat his feat. The upper 35m of the hill are still forested with mature trees, which just looked impossible to penetrate, so we didn't even try. Now, I'm totally prepared to believe that we just didn't look in the right places, but frankly, we're out to enjoy the hills and not do battle with overgrown woods, brambles, uncross-able deer fences and so on.
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Decision time. What to do? We had climbed the hill; although not at the summit, we were over 400m up. Conclusion - anyone who wants to fight their way to the summit is absolutely at liberty to do so, but the Game of Stones will not require that. The Stone has been placed just off the forestry road overlooking Glenquey at GR 969007 at a height of 405m, and only a few metres north of an unexpected (and so far unexplained) Site of Historical Interest - in fact a stone with even older markings, the carved lines on which may, who knows, even be a precursor to our present Game! .
Nope - we're not going in there!
An ancient Game of Stones?
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Shouldn't this be HillfootS Hill?
The Stone in position with Glenquey Reservoir and Innerdownie in the distance.
For update, see Stones #51 - #60, Friday 22 July 2022
Not the summit, but close and over 400m
Tuesday 13th October 2020.
Not quite Everest.
Parking and access: for today's circular walk taking in three agos400 summits, including the first mountain - Ben Ever, Scott and I parked at the large car park at the Ochil Hills Woodland Park. Another obvious possibility would be the car park near the golf course (not the gc car park!) serving Alva Glen. Access from both of these car parks is quite straightforward
#12. First five kilometres uphill. Today's first target was Craighorn [CrH] (885003) and the route chosen was simply to walk up to the highest point of the substantial track up the Silver Glen. We set off into a brisk north easterly breeze which became increasingly strong as the day progressed; as we turned towards the summit of Craighorn, we were pleased to get the benefit of the wind behind us as we followed the track towards the summit. We were impressed by the 360 degree panorama, with clear views of the mountains to the north, and west towards the Trossachs. It wasn't a day for hanging about, though, and we retraced our steps, this time into the wind, back to the Silver Glen track and a bite of lunch in a sheltered spot.
Note: #12, #13, #14 - see Stones #39 to #50 section, Wednesday 27 April 2022, for update
#14. "It's all downhill from here" - aye right! From our highest point of the day, we set off in a homewards direction, picking up our third summit of the day - Wood Hill [WMH] (GR 901988). Now for a wee bit of possible controversy - should the summit I am calling Wood Hill actually be called Millar Hill? Well, too bad if it should, as the Stone is out, and it's called Wood Hill - the summit about 500 metres further south does not have the necessary prominence. I must admit, this part of the route to the new summit was the most taxing of the day for me, as the very strong wind was whipping in from my left and making walking very hard work indeed. Of the pictures of me and Scott, the one of him is the more representative of the conditions! We didn't hang around too long in the gale, and started the journey downhill back to our cars.
Yoga with Stones on Wood Hill (or is it Millar Hill?)
#13. Onward and upwards. It was now time to make our way up to the highest point for today, Ben Ever [BEv] (GR 894001)
which, at a height of 622m is a Donald, and the first 2,000 ft mountain that I had climbed in the Game. To get there, we set of up the track towards Ben Buck for about 300 metres before turning right onto a sheep track leading in the direction of Ben Ever. Having followed this for about 800 metres, we came to the fence junction with the stile connecting Ben Buck and Ben Cleuch, and from there it was a simple wind-assisted ascent to the summit, which has two cairns. Having tried the smaller, it transpired that the larger had a more accurate GR, so that is where the Stone is. We didn't hang about, and it was a great relief to start downhill and out of the gale.
A windblown Scott with
Ben Ever in the distance
Having decided that neither of us fancied the very steep descent via Rough Knowes down the side of Wood Hill, we opted instead to head for the sheep fank near the Silver Glen track and hence back down to the Woodland Park. This entailed heading back to the fence we had crossed en route to the last summit then following the fairly steep track down, which was pretty straightforward and uneventful. We arrived back at the cars tired but very satisfied with a very productive day's work.
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Today: 6 hrs 15 mins, 13.5 km and 650m. (Running totals: 34 hrs 15 mins, 68.5 km and over 3,495m)
Footnote: www.Tourdeclacks.com/
World Polio Day is 24th October and as part of its contribution to the drive to eradicate polio from the planet, the Rotary Club of Alloa is running a "Tour de Clacks" challenge to raise funds - details on the website. My challenge is to complete at least 20 kilometres distance while setting out agos400 Stones in two circular routes in the Ochils within the County. Today was a great start .....
Thursday 22nd October 2020.
A wee sting in this trail!
Parking and access: for today's circular walk taking in three agos400 summits, Lindsey and I parked at the large car park beside Castlehill Reservoir (GR 997032). Access to today's route is by the Water Authority road right across the fairly busy road. This road leads to Glenquey Reservoir, but we left it at a very obvious gate and signpost to the left after a few hundred metres.The route we followed was straightforward and for the most part obvious, largely following tracks and paths, with some parts actually waymarked. It was very wet in places, as described below.
#15. Geordie's Wood and beyond. We set off uphill on paths through the Woodland Trust's Geordie's Wood, cutting a big bend in the Forestry track which we might otherwise have followed. Rejoining this track, we continued uphill, about 200 metres past a junction leading off to the left where we toiled up a large fire break which led us to the top of our first target for today, Auchlinsky Hill [AlH] (GR 987024). The problem for placing the Stone at this summit is that all that's there on the soggy top are trees and copious amounts of moss. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to find any permanent feature at which the Stone could be placed, so the decision was made to put it at the base of a particular tree, the trunk of which stands out amidst the gloom of its neighbours. We can only hope that it will be a while before these trees are harvested, since we have to assume the Stone will disappear at that point.
The Grid Reference couldn't be more accurate!
The top of the hill: trees, moss and bog - and a Stone
The flank of Innerdownie from the firebreak
#16. Downwards to go upwards. It was now time to make our way up to the highest point for today, Commonedge Hill [CeH] (GR 980015) at 468m. Leaving the summit of Auchlinsky was even more squelchy than the ascent had been, and it was a great relief to reach a Forest track, even if we did have to go downhill to reach it. After about a kilometre uphill on a good track, we came out of the forest to find that we had excellent views out over the County, although it was time to put on an extra layer of clothing to counter the brisk breeze up here. Following the obvious track to the left, we soon reached the summit of Commonedge, only to find that yet again there was no obvious place to put the Stone; however, about a hundred metres back we had passed a small rocky outcrop, and that is where it now rests.
Tour de Clacks Challenge almost finished - Lomond Hills in the background
#17. Another Game of Stones? Although the views were well worth the climb, the breeze was encouraging us to get on and find a sheltered spot for lunch on our way over to Seamab Hill [SmH] (GR 994017). As we arrived at the summit, we could see that there is a cairn there, a first for today, and with a wee surprise - someone else had put a stone on there on New Years Day - I wonder if it was supposed to bring good luck! Although this was the lowest summit of the day (by one metre!), it definitely had the best views, and these alone were a good reason for coming here, which many people obviously do - even on 1st January.
The cairn on Seamab Hill now has TWO painted stones
A recurring theme - "It's all downhill from here" - aye right! Well it was for about half of the homeward journey, in fact until just past the water works. From this point, you can actually see the road which leads to the car park and finish, but this is not a road you want to be walking on - some people seem to be in a very great hurry to get to Glendevon! And here is where we come to the sting in the tail alluded to at the beginning - the waymarked track back home was mostly uphill, mostly marshy and uneven underfoot, which was not the best of endings to what had been a satisfying exploration of an area we have passed many times, but never before stopped to explore. However, the circuit is to be recommended, especially in dry, warmer conditions.
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Today: 4 hrs 10 mins, 10 km and 375m. (Running totals: 38 hrs 25 mins, 78.5 km and over 3,870m)
Footnote: www.Tourdeclacks.com
World Polio Day is 24th October and as part of its contribution to the drive to eradicate polio from the planet, the Rotary Club of Alloa ran a "Tour de Clacks" challenge to raise funds - details on the website. My challenge was to complete at least 20 kilometres distance while setting out agos400 Stones in two circular routes in the Ochils within the County. Today I completed the challenge, having covered 23km in 10 hours altogether, gone up and down 1,026m (3,366 feet) and placed six Stones on summits.
Sunday 25th October 2020.
A new Ben in the Ochils.
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Parking and access: for today's walk, Gavin and I parked our cars at the small area at the Sheriffmuir end of the track from Menstrie. In good weather, this is likely to be busy, so cars may need to be parked further away. The Sheriffmuir road can be very busy, and is very narrow - not much of a pleasure to drive; it is almost always busy as far as the start of the entrance to the Dumyat track, no matter at what time of the year.
Another, more strenuous approach to today's hills could be from Menstrie via Colsnaur.
The story behind today's walk. As has been explained elsewhere, the challenge behind this Game is to place marked Stones at the summit of each of the mountains and hills in the Ochils which I have calculated to be over 400m high and have a prominence of at least 15m. This has resulted in some summits being identified which don't SEEM to have a name, in which case one has been assigned. Today, such a summit was our main target, hence the appearance in my list of another Ben in the Ochils, namely Benominee, a salute to Camp Menominee in Eagle River, Wisconsin with which our family has had close ties for over 50 years. The plan was to visit and place stones on Big Hunt Hill and Kidlaw Hill en route to our main goal.
Smiling at the start.
#18. Big Hunt Hill [BHH] (GR 847013) . As often is the case in late October, the weather forecast had gradually deteriorated, but having kitted ourselves out for the cool and breezy conditions, we set off uphill on the forestry track which leads over to Menstrie. After just over two kilometres of uphill slog, we reached a small spur which pointed up to the NW and to Big Hunt Hill. It was a pleasant surprise to find a substantial quad track leading us in the right direction, and having left it after about 800 metres to go cross country on a compass bearing for the summit, we were soon there to find it marked by one lonely post. At this point we were being assisted in our journey by a brisk breeze at our backs, which none of us relished walking into on the return later. We decided, as we were to rue later, that we would head next for Benominee instead of Kidlaw and take a more sheltered route back to the cars.
Murray lays his first Stone
#19. Back on track. It was now time to make our way up to the highest point for today, and our newly named hill Benominee [Bon] (GR 855007) at 541m (or 1,775 feet for our American readers!). We made our way back onto our original quad track which led us pretty quickly to our goal, which, to my surprise, sports a cairn. Does this mean that our unnamed hill does actually have some significance about which we do not know - does it already have a name? No matter, for A Game of Stones, this is Benominee, duly twinned now with Camp Menominee, with the Menominee logo-ed Stone to confirm this. It was now getting uncomfortably windy, so we did not hang around too long to enjoy the fine panoramic views of the surrounding hills, but set off, little realising that we had seen our last track, even sheeptrack, for the day!
#20. Only 60 more to go! Kidlaw Hill [KlH] (GR 853015) could be seen less than a kilometre away to the north, and we were keen to get there and then out of the wind. As I peched my way up to the top of this, the lowest top of the day, I could not see any obvious feature that could serve as a home for our last Stone, when Murray called out that he had found a little rocky outcrop, which suited the occasion just spendidly, so to him went the honour of placing today's last Stone.
For latest update on Kidlaw Hill, see 14th February 2023 at Hills #61-#70
And still smiling at the end.
A recurring theme - "It's all downhill from here" - aye right! I'm not sure just exactly when we realised that the decision on Big Hunt Hill to change our route was not a good one, but the alarm bells were ringing as we reached the new plantation about 50m down the hill - this will be impenetrable in a couple of years. And things got significantly worse when we reached the foot of the hill in Glentye to discover that this is obviously not somewhere that anybody - not even sheep - wants to walk in often enough to develop a path. Of course it wasn't all downhill, and worse - it was rough ground and very wet. It was a very long 2.5 kilometres indeed back to the very welcome cars, and that road to negotiate in the dark! If you want to visit these three hills together, be advised to follow the dotted and not the solid route on the map above! But, a great day out for the "boys" - huge respect for Murray who took it pretty much in his stride, and thanks to him and his dad for their company and support.
Today: 4 hrs, 9 km and 365m. (Running totals: 42 hrs 25 mins, 87.5 km and over 4,235m)