Hillwalk

I've been intrigued by the gorgeous hill behind my cottage since I arrived here. This hill fascinates me -- it catches the light in amazing ways, it has wonderful cows wandering the peak most of the time, and it's just a beautiful sight. It's the high point of the village, and I've been wanting to find a way up there since I got here.

I'd talked to a neighbor, Ali, who knows the paths, and she'd told me the way up, but also warned me it would be wet from all the rains. I'd been waiting for a clear day to give it a try ever since.

One night things cleared out suddenly, and that morning it was still fairly clear and bright, but quite windy. They were forecasting rain for later in the day. I decided I might not get a better chance, and I could always head back if I found the wind too strong, so I headed up the road to try to climb the hill.

I walked up the road to the location where Ali said to look for the gate to the path. I found the gate, and it was tied shut as she said it would be, but I couldn't figure out how to get it untied. Before going through, I decided to walk up the hill a bit and see Sandy's cows up close -- I admire them every day from the huge distance of my window. They were quite friendly.

Then, not seeing another gate anywhere, I went back to the gate I couldn't open and climbed over it. This worked fine, but landed me in a nice patch of mud -- the first evidence of how right Ali was that I should have wellies. (I didn't bring my wellies this trip because they take up so much space, and I figured I could buy more if I really needed them. I did, however, bring an old pair of walking shoes that are about shot, that I figured I could wear for situations like this. So, I was prepared to get my feet muddy.)

Trudging through the mud and up the hill to find the "path" was a bit of work, but the views were already terrific at this point, so it was well worth it. Once I got up about to the level of the cows again, I found the path by following the cow tracks. It was steep but fairly easy walking. As I was cresting the hill, the sun was dipping behind the encroaching clouds. I climbed around the rocks and took in all kinds of views of the village, take panorama shots and enjoying the view. It is amazing how much of the village you can see from here, and how well you can see the layout of it. You can see beyond Loch Roag clear out to the sea as well. It was well worth the climb!

The wind was picking up rapidly as I was up there, so I was having to find sheltered spots if I wanted to stand still enough for some of the photos. I wound my way through the moorland and the heather, largely picking the trail from the cow tracks. Once I'd gotten clear to the other side of the hill, the cow tracks became much less obvious, and I had to work to find my way around on the clumps of heather, avoiding the boggy areas. It was a bit of a challenge, especially when I was near the top and in the winds, but it wasn't too hard.

As I headed down the far side, I found myself staring at ruins of some sort, and realized I'd finally found the broch remains that are listed as being in Tolstachaolais on my map. I hadn't been able to figure out where they would be from the map, and had even bought an Ordinance Survey map hoping I'd find them there, but they weren't marked on that map. Here they were, right in front of me, without my looking!

I continued down the hill until I reached a truly boggy area, with no clumps of heather to stand on, and got my feet sopping wet, even leaving one shoe behind in the muck at one point and having to scoop it out to retrieve it and put it back on.

But I reached the end of the bog and was back to dry pavement again, just as it started to rain. Good timing again in that arena. The sheep across the street seemed to greet me as I went past. I then walked the remaining 1+ mile home on the road, with the wind and the rain to keep me company.

I met a neighbour on the way back that seemed to think I was nuts to tackle the hill in the wind, but I really hadn't found it that bad -- windy, but not difficult to deal with, other than standing still.

I hope I'll get another nice day to take that walk again sometime before I leave.

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