Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Saturday 8 February 2014

Will it, won't it



The weather was supposedly improving throughout the morning and despite the gloom persisting for longer than predicted, we were hopeful that things would pick up eventually.

By way of a change we had driven to the Castle Campbell car park above Dollar, our first objective being King's Seat Hill. After that plans were flexible.


The first and very beautiful part of this walk through the wooded gorge beside and above the Burn of Sorrow soon led to open ground and signs of some blue, but..


 shortly after Bank Hill it was all change as cloud enveloped us once more.



Then, almost as quickly



In the relative warmth of the emerging sunshine we stopped at the small memorial beside the path.

Photo August 2010
On 12 September 2009 this memorial cairn with plaque was built on the lower slopes of King's Seat Hill near the place where in 1943 three Spitfires, operating out of Grangemouth on a formation training flight, crashed. Two pilots, aged 20, were killed and a third badly injured. Barely alive, Sgt Vincent Daly was found crawling in the snow by a shepherd twenty four hours later and taken to Larbert Hospital. He survived the war.

The memorial was built by members of the 383 (Alloa) cadets ATC and the Ochils Mountain Rescue Team. Its unveiling was accompanied by a fly past from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.


The false summit. The highest point lies NW of here

Two runners were met just after leaving the cairn but these were the only others encountered all day.

The SW slopes of Whitewisp falling to the Burn of Sorrow

The descent to the the Burn of Sorrow below Maddy Moss and Tarmangie Hill was over large patches of hard snow or frozen tussocks, both preferable to the icey path. Lunch.

Our return by way of Whitewisp and Saddle Hill was delayed by finding a sheltered spot in the sun overlooking Castle Campbell where we finished off Lynne's excellent ginger bread.(More please).

Castle Campbell and Dollar





6 comments:

AlanR said...

That looks a nice day. We are experiencing very strong winds at the moment. So strong we were nearly blown off our feet at only 300 metres high. Glad to note that your knee is doing ok.

afootinthehills said...

Hi Alan. It was a really good day out. We seem to have been spared the really strong winds you are experiencing. My knee is really good, so once Lynne's event at Pitlochry Festival Theatre is over later this month we hope to head north to the snowy Cairngorms.

Have you fully recovered from your op?

AlanR said...

I don't think you ever fully recover 100% from surgery but I have no complaints. The surgeon did a good job and I just get the odd pain when the area is pulled or stretched. Thanks for asking.

Gayle said...

Bit late commenting here (limited internet access over the last few weeks has seen a backlog of blog posts being read in a bit of a random order) - but that looks an excellent walk. I was particularly taken with the walk out of Dollar, past Castle Campbell, when we went that way on our East to West in 2011.

afootinthehills said...

Hello Gayle. It's an enjoyable, relatively short day out and can be easily extended as the mood dictates. I remember your East to West and see that you came through Glen Quey on your way to Auchterarder. Goodness you were so close to us! Did you go via Borland Glen (ROW from what used to be Glendevon Youth Hostel?) I must go back and read the full account of your trip.

Gayle said...

We did indeed go via Borland Glen. If we were close to you on our EtoW, then we will be again this April; we liked that section so much that I've left it unchanged for this year's Big Walk.