Kerloch evening

Having walked around to the south west side of Kerloch, my route turned towards the summit via the Builg, part of the Mounth path of the same name.  Part of this was quite boggy and I was glad to reach the forest road climbing towards the shoulder and drier ground.  It's a steady climb of about 350 metres to the summit, mostly through tall forests which conceal the view until quite near the top.

But what views!  Kerloch is just 534m/1752 ft high but being isolated above large areas of lower ground has absolutely huge views in every direction.  To the north east Durris and Fetteresso forests stretched away in a carpet of dark green; to the east the haze just permitted a view of the city of Aberdeen and the North Sea.

But the best views were in the south and west.  The late afternoon sun was low on the horizon and the mist already beginning to re-form in the glens of the Mounth.

The swelling heather domes enclosing the Angus Glens stretched away, the haze producing a soft focus effect.  I lingered on the summit for a good half hour just enjoying the changing light and an almost complete absence of sound.  I still had a good distance to go to get back to my starting point so all too soon it was time to head off; this time taking the direct route north towards Feughside on a good track which joined the Stock Mounth track.

Sunset came and went on my walk out, the few clouds briefly fired with pink and then gold.  Reaching the road, all that remained was a 2km walk back up the hill to the car as darkness settled.

What might have been a short walk "there and back" to the summit turned out to have been 28 kilometres and a full 8 hours, and what a super day it had been.

Circle of gold

On a beautiful autumn day I set out to climb Kerloch,  a heathery dome rising above the forests south of Banchory in Aberdeenshire.  A straight up-and-down ascent would have made for a short day; it was a lovely day so I planned a longer route which would take me almost completely around the base of the hill before climbing over it on my way back.

I started from a small forest car-park near to the Mulloch stone circle, also known as the Nine Stanes.  The circle is just off the road in a forest plantation and is one of the recumbent circles which are a distinctive form of monument found the north east of Scotland. The Nine Stanes circle is one of three quite closely grouped monuments and is about 3,500 years old.  Although now in the forest, it would have commanded a wide view and was probably used in part as a lunar calendar.

 The northern side of Kerloch is mostly open moorland with wide views; the distinctive tor on Clachnaben stands out in the view to the south west.  After crossing the moorland approach I entered the forest to the north east of Kerloch, planning to link forest roads and footpaths to make a large clockwise arc around to the south west of the summit.

A feature of the forestry plantations hereabouts is that the spruce blocks are edged with larch (Larix decidua), some obviously planted and others seemingly self-seeded.

I've always been fond of larches, a deciduous conifer which turns the most brilliant shades in the autumn before dropping its needles.  The branches were glowing in the bright sunshine, the trees forming a circle of gold around the hillside, edging the deep green of the spruces and the rich plum shades of the higher moors.

 
In places this "circle of gold" was simply dazzling; the intensity of the colour changing the light completely.

There were other bright colours in evidence too; in the warm sunshine a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) was feeding on a late flowering Ragwort

Several sections of my route used rights of way.  Scotland doesn't have public footpaths in the sense that England and Wales do, but rights of way are often marked by the Scottish Rights of Way Society; and many of these have usage going back many centuries.  I used sections of the Stock Mounth and Builg Mounth paths, both mounth roads once used for cattle droving, trade and smuggling.

After nearly six hours of walking, I'd made my way right around the south of Kerloch and now was able to climb to the summit from almost exactly the opposite point to which I'd started - a strange but somehow satisfying way to climb a hill!