April Weekend to Peanmeanach Bothy
Cornel, Miriam and I travelled up to Fort William on the Sunday for a late breakfast at Morrisons. We then had a short drive on the A830 to the layby at Ardnish, which is just a bit further on than Lochailort.
View a map of the Ardnish peninsula?
Although the rain had stopped, in anticipation of more to come, we took the opportunity to get our rain gear on and start walking. Within 10mins we crossed over the railway line via a small footbridge.
We made good progress on a reasonable path to Loch Doire a' Ghearrain, where the rain started again. The path then descended through woods, to the final flat walk to Peanmeanach Bothy.
We had the padlock codes to access the Bothy and got settled in. It's a well appointed bothy with old traditional furniture, a cooking stove and camping beds. The weather gave us a couple of rain free intervals to explore the local area and around 5pm we got the fire on.
It was a wild night with the the rain hammering off the roof. Next morning we took it easy and had a visit from Peter the owner, who had walked from his house at Laggan to repair the stove. We eventually started walking around 11am .. once the rain had stopped!
We walked back up the path and then detoured off to a place called the howf. This is high on a crag above the bothy, where someone had lived for a year back in the early 1980s.
It was then back to the main path and off to the village of Sloch, where there was a cave. Miriam went in for a closer look.
We then followed the coastline to a singing sands beach .. where we had rain, hail and sun !
Finally, we visited the Glasnacardoch ruins where we saw the remains of the ‘new’ school and then headed back to bothy.
On Tuesday we got up to a nice day and had excellent views as we walked out, and, as with all bothy trips, we had coffee and cake/scones at Glencoe village, as a well deserved treat.
It was a bothy trip with a difference .. and well worth the effort.
Mark Setford
April Weekday Walk in the Falkirk area
April Day Trip to the Pentland Hills
The Pentland Hills are located very close to Edinburgh and are therefore a bit of an outdoor playground for the locals. However, I had not expected that a 9am start would find the Harlaw reservoir car par full to overflowing. Undaunted, the 5 day-walkers .. Diane, John, Hamish, Heidi and I .. parked on the verge of the road and set off.
We headed past the Harlaw visitor centre (temporarily closed) and followed the south side of Harlaw reservoir then Threipmuir reservoir until Redford Bridge, then turned north up the steep tree-lined avenue towards Bavelaw Castle and onto open ground. The morning was bright but chilly, and after this first ascent some of the gloves and layers were removed. The Red Road climbed steadily, skirting Hare Hill and we made a first coffee stop where it crested the ridge. From there it was a short, steep ascent to West Kip (551m).
From West Kip we continued east along the ridge to East Kip (534m) and then to the trig point on Scald Law (579m). We had clear views north across Edinburgh and the Forth estuary to Fife and west back towards Glasgow. The wind had risen slightly so we found a sheltered spot for lunch. We continued along the ridge, descending to the saddle before Carnethy Hill and followed the path which descended steeply to The Howe .. there were no takers for a quick trip to the top of Carnethy Hill!
From The Howe, we followed the path through the narrow gap of Green Cleuch then contoured along the side of Black Hill before descending to the end of Threipmuir reservoir. We returned to the car park via the weir at the end of Threipmuir reservoir.
Although a few rain clouds had threatened us while we were on the ridge, the day stayed dry and the walk .. 16.5km and 600m ascent .. was completed in a leisurely 6 hours with many stops to admire the views.
James Anderson
