It's only eleven miles away in the Kingdom of Fife overlooking Loch Leven, but our boots had never trod its summit. It was time to cross the border and put that right.
Only one car was present in the small car parking area on the south side of the hill but unlike when
Gayle and Mick were here it was not covered in litter. A pleasant climb through woods, where much storm damage was evident, brought us to more open ground and views of the snow-capped Ochils.
Shortly after, open heather-clad moorland gave a lovely wander to the summit (not this bump).
The views were extensive in all directions with the Bass Rock and North Berwick Law visible to the south while eastwards lay another Marilyn, Largo Law, climbed some years ago. Below lay Loch Leven with its islands; on one is Loch Leven Castle, which held Mary Queen of Scots prisoner in 1567.
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| Loch Leven and Bishop Hill |
A brief stop and then onwards to the western end of the hill to find the fort.
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| A view back with small dolerite cliffs visible. Routes up to E4 I think |
I've never heard anyone speak ill of this little hill and I'm not surprised. It's delight all the way.
It all felt very spring-like with warm sunshine and bird song but subsequent days on higher hills reminded us that winter is still with us.
6 comments:
Good to see you getting out.
Is there a mild form of rivalry between adjoining counties in your part of the world? The obvious example around here is between Lancashire and Yorkshire, but of course that particular rivalry is founded on pretty serious happenings in our history.
We've been out five days this week and have just got home from a day on crisp hard snow in the Ochils.
There is no rivalry, that I'm aware of, between the counties but we were 'crossing the border' to climb the hill from the Fife side. Fife is a large and varied county whereas Kinross-shire is the second smallest county in Scotland.
Part of Benarty does lie in Kinross-shire and may be ascended from the Nature Reserve but access to the reserve paths cost £5 a head to non-RSPB members.
What a great day out. I wish spring would hurry up its freezing here.
Hi Alan. It was very pleasant not being battered by wind and rain for a change but it was anything but spring-like today high up with iron hard snow and no sun until late afternoon. The hills to the north are absolutely plastered so worth an early rise if the clear weather continues and the avalanche risk decreases by a category or two.
Glad to hear that the rubbish and fly-tipping in that area has been resolved, suggesting that it was a temporary problem. I do recall it being a nice walk, once I'd found the path through the forest.
I wonder if we are talking about the same car park. The forest track starts from the parking spot and is impossible to miss, even for me. I notice I didn't link 'Gayle and Mick' to your blog so I've changed that.
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