News for 2012
Walking in The Lamington Area - 7th January 2012
The first walk of the new year for the Club, on Saturday 7 January, was to Lamington which is on the A702 road to Biggar. The morning dawned bright and clear and the weather forecast for the day was quite encouraging. As is traditional for the Club, this first walk of the new programme was a Club Walk i.e. no dividing into Low and High Level groups. The rigours of the festive season had taken their toll, calories had to be burned off and this reasonably vigorous walk in the Lanarkshire Hills was just the "ticket". All walkers were dropped off at Lamington village and struck out to the south east, following a well defined track in through the forest. Open hillside was reached after about 30 minutes but before venturing out from the shelter of the trees the opportunity was taken to have a quick drum-up. Once out on the exposed slopes there would be very little shelter. The summit of Lamington Hill with its trig point at 492m was reached without any difficulties but it was windy and cold and there was not too much incentive to linger. This would be the highest point of the day and a pause was made to have a good look at Tinto out to the north west and very clear in the morning air. The small patches of snow still clinging to its upper slopes were particularly vivid. From this vantage point the walkers dropped some height before climbing up again to the top of the quaintly named Turkey Hill, at 489m only slightly lower than Lamington Hill. The wind was even stronger on Turkey Hill and the "chill factor" was very evident. From this summit it was a fairly long and relatively gentle descent over wild hillside with no tracks down to the shelter of an uninhabited farm called Windgill which is located on the banks of the river Cow Gill. Cow Gill is a tributary of the Clyde. It was bright and sunny at this sheltered spot and advantage was taken of the comfortable conditions to have lunch. There was a scheduled change of direction after lunch with the group basically heading west, winding a way in through the hills, passing the isolated and somewhat overgrown Cowgill Loch and then descending down past Baitlaws Farm and eventually emerging on the the main A702 road a short distance from Lamington. The total distance covered was approximately 12 kms., the highest point reached was 492m, the volume of clear fresh air consumed was most invigorating, the chatting and socialising was very therapudic and in general the opinion of the group was this outing was an excellent start to the new season. These sentiments were further enhanced during the social hour in Biggar which is always a popular stopping point.
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Walking in The Menteith Hills - 21st January 2012
Prior to the outing on Saturday 21 January routine reconnoitring of the intended area revealed that recent storms had just about decimated a large section of forest at Braeval, the planned start point, near Aberfoyle. The damage was so extensive that all thoughts of using Braeval as a start point had to be abandoned. A revised start point at Portend, close to the Lake of Menteith, was checked out and found to be acceptable and so it emerged that the bus load of members commenced walking from there on a bright but very windy morning. Portend is not a forested area but even here evidence of significant storm damage was visible and at one point a very large beech tree of considerable age was seen to be split asunder. Open hillside was quickly reached by all walkers and at a point near Nether Glenny Farm the Low Levellers struck off to the north towards the base of the Menteith Hills whilst the High Levellers swung east on to the ridge connecting with Beinn Dearg, 427m high, heather covered and on this particular occasion, very windy indeed. The combination of wind, heather and steep slopes made for some quite challenging walking and certainly removed all thoughts that so called "smaller" mountains should be easier. From Beinn Dearg the route continued on to Ben Gullipen with its collection of communications masts moaning loudly in the strong gusting winds. All the while, in addition to the wind, the members had either hail, driving snow or bright sunshine to contend with, all of which certainly tested full walking gear to the limits. After Ben Gullipen it was a fairly straightforward descent down to Callander following a well made forest track thus completing an extremely invigorating hike of some 13 kms.
Whilst the High Levellers were doing battle with the wind the Low Levellers were making their way north east along the base of the Menteith Hills following a traditional walking path from Aberfoyle to Loch Venachar. At a small lochan, colloquially referred to as "The Loch with no Name" they turned north and skirted around the crag called Meall nan Gobhar from where it was a fairly easy stroll down to the shore of Loch Venachar. The group was reasonably sheltered from the worst excesses of the wind and although many fallen trees were to be seen none presented any restriction to progress. The views to the north out on to snow covered Ben Ledi were quite splendid during the short periods of bright sunshine but for the most part heavy cloud obscured this mountain. The strong wind certainly disturbed the surface of Loch Venachar and created white topped waves sending them crashing on to the south shore as the Low Levellers walked along. The remainder of the route was fairly flat into Callander and glowing faces testified to a plentiful provision of fresh air and exercise. All members joined forces to enjoy a welcome social hour in Callander and any thoughts of the weather spoiling the day were quickly forgotten.