A lovely day, a short drive, easy parking and, for us, a new summit in the Ochils, Ben Effrey.
We climbed its near and higher neighbour Craig Rossie in 1978 from Pairney Farm, the usual starting place, and made a direct ascent to inspect the crags on the way. I don't recall anything of that day and poor Ben Effery didn't even register. Even Lynne's Mum climbed it before us when in her late 70's.
Parking at Littlerigg we followed Corb Glen, a well-known and much loved place for us and, at a little outcrop favoured by the local sheep, we turned uphill for Little Law and Muckle Law, mere rises on a broad grassy, tussocky ridge. It was easy going as the ridge gently descends from Little Law to the Pairney Burn where, after a
short climb through the whins, we met the track coming in from the farm
at Pairney, the most common route to the hill these days. Beld Hill is easily reached from here enroute to Ben Effrey but we missed out the top, leaving it for another day
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| Ben Effrey. Chilling to think that in 2004 application was made to put 14 wind turbines along here. Kicked out - eventually |
At the cairn we met a young couple enjoying the view across
Strath Earn. Intending to climb Craig Rossie they had used the previously mentioned path then followed
the same route as us but had somehow failed to locate the hill despite it being clearly visible on the approach.
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| Strath Earn |
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| Craig Rossie from Ben Effrey |
Ben Effrey, part of the
Ochil Volcanic Formation, consists mainly of andesite and basalt lavas
and its hillfort was investigated as part of the SERF (Strathearn
Environs and Royal Forteviot) project in 2011 by excavating a 30m by 2m
trench on the south side of the fort. Exposed rhyodacite is also in
evidence and forms the nearby crags of Craig Rossie. We will return to have a closer look.
An easy walk took us to the 410m trig point on Craig Rossie. The couple from Ben Effrey never arrived and we met no-one else all day. A sheltered spot in the sun was ideal for lunch.
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| Approaching Craig Rossie |
When not taking to the hills on either side of Corb Glen, the drove road can be followed to the peaceful farm at Coulshill and well beyond this, a grand house is reached. This is Foswell House sold in
2015 by John and Isobel Haldane along with the 1240 acre estate which
had been in Haldane ownership since 1897. The asking price was 'over
£2.5m'. It is a
beautiful spot. Thereafter, by some delightful minor roads (tarred) and
a short stretch of busier roads, Auchterarder is reached. For us that's a
round trip of 21km with time for a coffee at Lynne's mum's.
Today's outing was about 15km with only 408m of ascent and cool beers in the garden rounded off a most enjoyable trip.
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| Foswell House. ARB Haldane is of course the author of the classic 'The Drove Roads of Scotland' |
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| Approaching Foswell House - a glimpse of Auchterarder and the hills above Crieff |
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| A January day |
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| Summer in Corb Glen |
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| The Pairney Burn and whins |
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| Delightful rolling country |
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| Cropped grass leading to Beld Hill - which we skirted. Another top for another day. |
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| Part of the crags on Craig Rossie |
6 comments:
A lovely day out Gibson. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks Martin. Six days later I pulled my calf muscle so I don’t have much catching up to do on the blogging front. I felt very ‘rusty’ putting this together but at least a start has been made.
Good to see you out on the hills. You have some wonderful peaceful country to go at. I had a chuckle at the non-hill-finding couple despite its visibility. I did once go up the wrong hill, can't remember the details now, but such things can happen more easily than one would think.
Yes Conrad, these are quiet hills and rarely do we meet other walkers. I did smile to myself as I wrote about the couple we met since a few weeks ago we went astray, in perfect weather, on a walk we've done countless times and ended up walking a parallel course to our intended one. Too much blethering. It never pays to be smug about others getting lost.
After my "This must be the right one - it's got cairns on top" escapade last year ( on Creagan Gorm), I won't be commenting on navigation errors.
Hello Dave. I think we've all had the 'this must be the top' experience only to find that it wasn't. Usually back at the car.
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