Duncolm (NS470775; 401m)

Upon arrival in Kilpatrick this morning we found the road in which I'd intended us to park (based on other people's walk reports and perusal on StreetView) to be decked out with double yellow lines and a 'no parking beyond this point' sign. Neither were strictly legal, but we did as the signage asked, and went and parked in the new car park which has been created a few hundred metres away.

We sat a while, over coffee and croissants, looking at the low cloud shrouding the hills and the drizzle on the windscreen. It was still the same when we finally stirred ourselves to get organised and to get outside.

The drizzle soon overwhelmed our wind shirts, but it wasn't all bad as the cloud base lifted as we ascended and, although we had numerous clothing faffs to deal with the drizzly spells, we never did ascend into the cloud.

A track took us up to Loch Humphrey, where the surroundings were fine, even if marred by a bit of modern infrastructure...

...and beyond the loch, a well-trodden (but often sodden) path continued into the lovely shades-of-beige-and-green lumpiness beyond.

Middle Duncolm was one of the little lumps in the landscape and, as it lay between us and our objective, we had the option of going over or around. 'Over' was chosen for the outward leg, but for a bit of variety we went for 'around' on the way back.

As well as lots of undulations in the landscape, there were lots of lochs to be seen from the top...

...although in the direction of Loch Lomond the views were severely curtailed by another drizzly shower, of which we only caught the edge.

I admired it all whilst slouching dreadfully...

...and then back we went, pausing at Loch Humphrey for lunch on our way.

The Kilpatrick Hills are obviously popular. There were people aplenty making their way up to the loch as we strode down.

A smidge over 8.5 miles were walked, with around 430m of ascent.