The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Friday 18 October 2019

Knock of Crieff (NN873233; 279m)

Friday 18 October
Distance: 1.75 miles
Ascent: 120m
Weather: A cool and damp autumnal day, with cloud hanging in the valleys.
What a lovely little hill the Knock of Crieff is! Having either walked up hill(s) or been for a run every day for the last week, I'd allocated today as a rest day, but even rest days require some exercise and this little hill was perfect for a short walk with the bonus of scoring another Marilyn tick too.

With Bertie parked in a slightly ignorant position, Mick stayed behind as I strode up an engineered path through natural woodland:


That brought me to a viewpoint on the first minor summit...


...where the view to the west of glens full of mist was far better than I managed to capture (in fact, my snap is so bad that I've not included it - the photo above shows the clearer view to the north).

After descending a little way, still on a good path, I picked up a muddy line through trees that felt like it was going in the right direction. It was, and less than twenty minutes after leaving Bertie I reached the summit cairn, which sits amongst the ugly piled-up remains of a recently felled forest. I shouldn't complain - before the forest was felled there can't have been any view from this summit, and it's a view worth seeing, even on a dull, overcast day.

Look beyond the piles of wood-harvesting detritus and there's a far-reaching view of cloud hanging in the dips. I walked through some of that low lying layer of cloud on my way down.

Obligatory summit selfie.

As can be seen from the map snippet, I formed an almost-circuit by using a good track for my descent (not as attractive as my ascent route, but pleasant enough), arriving back at Bertie half an hour after leaving.

Bonus snap for Conrad (based on his question a couple of days ago), of today's elevenses:


3 comments:

  1. I can't believe I've never come across butteries. I presume you can eat them as is, or better cut in half and daub with butter or whatever?

    You must have done quite a few Scottish Ms by now - are you counting, and/or is it secret?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only about 5 years ago I remember being able to buy butteries just about everywhere in the NE corner of Scotland (the Aberdeenshire/Morayshire corner, rather than the JOG one), but only being able to find them elsewhere in Tesco in Aviemore and Perth. It seems to me that they've become more widely available in recent years, hence we've been enjoying them on this trip (although no joy finding any in Lidl in Stirling yesterday).

      Because they're often very flat, we just spread them liberally with marmalade on the flat bottom side. The sweetness of the marmalade and the saltiness of the buttery make a fine combination.

      None of my hill numbers are secret, I just have no idea what they are! I carelessly came away on this trip without the iGadget which holds the accurate record, so at the moment I haven't the slightest idea how many I've done. I shall look when we get home and post a tally.

      Delete
  2. Well done on getting out in unideal weather. Hopefully you’ll have a good week coming up.

    ReplyDelete