21 August 2025
Start Point: parking area by Millden Lodge, to the S
Distance and ascent: 15.3km, 760m (the detour into upper Glen Dye was my main objective on this outing, not an accident!)
Weather: Disappointingly cool and overcast, against a descent forecast, with a bit of moisture in the air as I approached the summit.
My main objective on this outing was to check out the state of the old path, marked on 1:50k maps, that goes from by Stobie Hillock and into Glen Dye, and the alternative of continuing up the track to Hill of Turret before dropping into Glen Dye. However, it would have been remiss to have expended time and energy doing that for someone else's benefit and not have continued on to visit Mount Battock for myself, so that's what I did.
There's nothing much to say about the Mount Battock part of the outing. Good tracks lead to Hill of Saughs and a decent trodden line then extends to Mount Battock. Lots of fence posts lying in the bottom of the peat hags confirmed that this can be a soggy route, but ground conditions have been exceptionally dry this year, so I was able to just stroll across without any threat of sinking.
Slightly further along the same area of peat were some sunken posts; these looked newly placed.
Obligatory summit selfie.
My plotted route was a circuit, but in the interests of having time for at least one, if not two, more recces later in the day, I took the quick option of retracing my steps, albeit without the detour via the top of Glen Dye.
After lunch, still in Glen Esk, I set out from E of Cornescorn, crossed the river and took the obvious tracks (via Cornescorn) to Burn of Mooran. I then followed the burn downstream to pick up the tracks further S, which I followed back to Cornescorn. I didn't quite retrace my steps from there, but cut off an even bigger corner, versus following the track, than I had on my outward leg. Another relatively unremarkable outing, although it did have the added interest of cows with young calves browsing the hillside, a couple of which I accidentally herded a way along a track, and a section of hillside so covered in bracken that I had flashbacks to the Bracken Brecon Beacons. (7.7km, 210m).
Good to see you out and about. Sorry not to be more attentive. I seem to spend the time chasing my tail!
ReplyDeleteIt was good to be out again after far too many weeks at home without a car. I sympathise with the chasing of tail, although in my case at the moment it's due to too much procrastinating and not enough doing!
DeleteI guess you are filling in blanks on the TGO route information data base?
ReplyDeleteThe actual purpose was recceing bits of route for the new TGO-Challenge introductory event (TGO Challenge East) which will run on set routes from a number of start points along the A9 corridor to the east coast. As they are set routes, certain things needed to be checked on the ground. You are right, though, that the info will also feed into the main TGOC interactive map of info.
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