Fear not, till Birnam wood Do come to Dunsinane

Dunsinane Cairn

Fortunately there was no hubble, bubble, toil or trouble for me today as I set off in the sun on a bit of a pilgrimage which, as well as taking in Kings Seat, would take in the above mentioned Dunsinane Hill in the Sidlaws just outside Dundee.

The car was duly abandoned at the designated abandonment spot just outside Collace village which looked directly up the path towards Dunsinane. now for those of you who are reading this is far flung places like Carnoustie (you know who you are!!) this is the site of an iron age hill fort and the supposed site of MacBeth's castle where it was prophesied that he would never vanquished be until Birnam wood comes to high Dunsinane. This came to fruition when King Malcolm's soldiers chopped down the trees in Birnam wood and marched the 12 miles (as the crow flies) to the said Dunsinane! So, history/literature lesson over, this really is a splendid example of a hill fort which is a relatively easy hill climb.

Black Hill from Dunsinane

Once I'd wandered round the said fort, I descended into the saddle between Dunsinane and Black Hill with the intention of climbing to the summit of Black Hill however, no matter where I looked there was what could only be described as a helluva steep climb in front of me! So, I circumnavigated the back of Black Hill and almost disappear knee high in heather. At this point, due to wearing my shorts, I became a little paranoid of sheep tics!! This paranoia resulted in me deviating from the planned way by a considerable distance! fear not, I found my way back to the straight and narrow- not before almost squashing copulating toads!

Bit by bit I made my way up to the trig point on the summit, regularly stopping to feast on the beauty of the Tay valley to the south and the Valley of Strathmore and Grampians to the north- how much more beautiful the world looks when the sun is out!

Looking east to Craigowl

Upon reaching the summit, I placed the obligatory rock on the cairn, a cairn which has considerable sentimental value to me- but that is for another day! I suddenly realised how difficult it is to set the timer and balance a mobile phone on a cairn to take photos!! After numerous "sky with the top of my head" shots I finally succeeded!

The descent was equally as beautiful, traversing the northern slopes of Kings Seat down an old track which led to crossing some fields and carefully ignoring the sheep!

Yet again, another stunning walk! Oh what a joy to feel completely at one with the world and with life! The hills are possibly the best therapy in the world!!

The Conspiratorial Nature of Mother.....If you know what I mean!

10 days ago, myself and Lesley were all set and planned to walk from my gaff in Dundee to my folks house over the Sidlaw hills to stay the night then walk back the following day. We were "right excited" about the whole thing. Maps at the ready, boots at the ready, mum's stovies at the ready and it all went pear shaped! And I don't mean because of the snow!

 

Now I am not sure if it was the fact that I was at an EIS meeting and appeared to be digesting nothing but bad news and bitter pills to swallow but the night ended in me legging it out of the Glamis Room in the Queens Hotel in the direction of the nearest loo! Talk about a sudden visitation! There began a visitation every hour on the hour for the next 12 hours! Needless to say the planned adventure over the Sidlaws never transpired- nor did the birthday tea! In fact my birthday was spent in bed feeling very sorry for myself.

 

I will miss out the joys of the rest of the week but here we are now at Thursday night, still off school, and I have a feeling it will be another weekend of doing very little- may manage a wee stroll by Sunday!

 

So all things considered, Mother Nature was truly working against us; snow and gastric flu are not conducive to walking over the Sidlaws!!

Distance vs Height....only one way to find out.....

Oh dear, were you saying fight?! No, the answer is to just do it! What a stunning day it was to do it too; it was dry (something we are not accustomed to), fresh, clear-ish and we felt fantastic!

We promised ourselves that we would be at Flotterstone at 10am latest so us being there and ready to start by 10.30 was fantastic! Even at that time, the car park at Flotterstone was like Tesco on Christmas Eve!

So off we set on our merry way in amongst the throngs of people- I've come to the conclusion that people around Edinburgh have a far greater love of the outdoors than us beings further north- even a wee kid of five made it to the top! We made our way up the path to the beginning of the walk to Scald Law looking up at the height with some trepidation!

The beginning of the walk passed a beautiful bubbling stream and sharply climbed to a wee hill- now once I'd climbed this I have to say I was very doubtful of getting to the top- a virus and thinking I am fitter than I actually am- proved to be a mental hurdle I had to conquer! So on we trudged- in silence, talking was completely out of the question for both of us! very quickly we decided that we would take it at our own pace and stop when we needed. I have to say, that after the initial being out of breath and thinking we'll never do this we kept going and it was fantastic! We made it to the half way point only to be skipped past by the said five year old proclaiming to her dad, "I've come all this way and not had a carry yet!" Oh how appealing a carry was at that point; not sure who would have carried who though! This mid way point proved a suitable point for a photo opporchancity as there were many ancient, funny shaped trees. Now perhaps it was something to do with how I was feeling and the fear that death may be close due to lack of breath but I could have sworn there was an angel in the tree?!

The next section of the path lulled us into a false sense of security with a much more graduated path allowing us to discuss the beauty and tranquillity of the day, other than the 100s of people who had decided to do our walk! We crested the brow of a hill only to be faced with the steepest incline of the walk, so steep, the thousands of feet which have trudged this path over the years had created stairs in the hill side.

At this point, I felt it was the time to see just how effective the altitude thingy on my new birthday watch was.....300ft incline of blooming steps! You can imagine how we felt once we reached the top- not that we did it in one go of course!

After a lengthy rest we headed off up the the summit and duly placed a rock on the cairn then found a sheltered sheep hole for a chocolate break! We got the map out as we realised that we were not at the summit of Scald Law, we were in fact on the summit of Carnethy Hill, Scald Law was further on, higher up and required us to go down the other side from which we had just climbed, then up the same again. I tried to convince myself that we would do it no problem. So off we trotted, trying to heat up from the icy blast of the summit and sheep hole- sometimes a chocolate stop is not the best course of action!

We made our way down the side of Carnethy Hill to the cross roads of the path which would take us up Scald Law or on some other path round Scald Law; no prizes for guessing the one we took. Why go over when you can go round?! It was fab because suddenly we were alone and lost in our thoughts following sheep paths. I have to say I got lost in the fantasy that I was Bear Grylls or Bruce Parry hard on the trail of the illusive sheep, tracking it's hoof prints and poo! But alas, I lost the scent and we were stranded! I had led us to a dead end so to speak.

So after much deliberation and general farting about, we made our way down this gully (it sounds very grand but was just a wee dip with a wee burn running down it) where I tried to pick up the track of the sheep as we made our way towards the road which we seemed to see for ages but never really got much closer! We chanced upon the remains of a sheep- now this excited Bear Grylls no end and prompted another photo shoot with Bruce Parry doing her best Shakespeare impression!

Bit by bit we made our way down the side of the burn towards the road. We eventually got to the end and joined the burn at the bottom which winds towards Glencorse reservoir. However, this was not without it's trappings as we were at one side of the burn and the road was at the other. We decided to walk along the bank of the burn and marvelled at the opportunities to camp only to be met with a solid rock protrusion into the burn. The only thing for it was the stepping stones- however, the road behind us resembled Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday with walkers, runners, cyclists and motorists passing by. Of course, we had suddenly become the focal point of their walks/cycles/runs/motoring. I can happily report that we didn't provide any Sunday hilarity for the onlookers, in fact I was most impressed with how well we coped with the pressure!!

The walk back to Flotterstone allowed us the luxury of converstation and about 3 miles of roads. The sun was out, the birds were singing and all in all we had a ball!

So to address the burning question as to which is better....each bring their own delights and tribulations!! We had such a good day....I am now typing this up with a healthy rosy glow and a huge smile on my face....all is good in the world! :-)

Plans back on track- at last!!!

So the lurgy has almost gone and I'm no longer sounding like Deirdre Barlow!! Big plans this weekend for our training walk as the WHW marches ever closer!! In between our plans this weekend, I reckon we need to get our itinerary of who brings what to keep us at 20kg weight allowance! We have a fab wee company, Travel-Lite, who are based in Milngavie who for the sum of £40 will deliver our bag to each of the places we are staying. To be honest, they could have charged us ten times that to not have to carry our bags!! We've also persuaded (least I think we have) my folks to meet us the night we are in Tyndrum; tea and clean pants and socks will be the order of that particular day I reckon!!

 

Watch this space for info on our Sunday walk!! :-)