. On Thursday
evening I drove as far as Tinto before parking-up for the night. It was
-8C on arrival and would get a couple of degrees colder during the night.This morning, I drove a short distance from the Tinto car park to Lamington for an ascent of Lamington Hill. It was going to be a chilly walk
.-10C:
Hills: Lamington Hill
Date: Friday 1st February 2019
Company: Just myself
Distance: 5.9km, Ascent: 290m
Time: 2Hrs
The walk up Lamington Hill is waymarked with several "Walkers" signs along the route. The walk starts next to Barjols Cottage.
Click here to see a map of the route undertaken
Start of track next to Barjols Cottage:
On reaching the track junction at Lamington Kennels take the ascending track. The next junction is not waymarked, on reaching it again take the track to the left.
Take the ascending track to left of Lamington Kennels:
The ascent up through the forest was bitterly cold but lovely. An assortment of birds were flying between the frost-covered trees.
Frosty forest trail:
On clearing the forest I also cleared the inversion. It was a stunning day once above the bank of fog.
Out of the forest:
It was nice to look back and actually see Tinto, as I had been unable to see it from its car park.
Tinto above a sea of inversion:
Ascending Lamington Hill:
The ascent of Lamington Hill took a good bit longer than expected owing to stopping so often to take photos of the inversion.
Inversion:
Central Belt covered in cloud:
Once onto the sunlit ridge the temperature increased by several degrees.
View from Lamington Hill:
Loving the inversion:
It was however still fairly cold at the summit so after taking a few photos I returned to the van via almost the same route. I say almost because just beyond the Kennels I took a wrong turn which added an additional few hundred metres to the walk.
At the summit of Lamington Hill:
Once back in the van, I drove further south with a view to ascending one further Marilyn as Lamington Hill was my 999th Scottish Marilyn.
There was a fair bit of indecision as to which Marilyn to ascend next. I decided to head towards Dumfries and ascend one of my remaining unclimbed Marilyns there.
For my ascent of Bishop Forest Hill, I parked at the far end of Glenkiln Reservoir where there is a small car park.
Hills: Bishop Forest Hill
Date: Friday 1st February 2019
Company: Just myself
Distance: 4.7km, Ascent: 240m
Time: 1Hr 35Mins
Click here to see a map of the route undertaken
From the car park, I walked a short distance along the road towards Cornlee. On reaching Cornlee, I spotted a waymark sign just beyond a gate. After trying and failing to open the gate I climbed over it instead. I then followed a track with numerous Hawthorn trees alongside.
Starting the ascent of Bishop Forest Hill:
It was nice to look back and get a view down to Glenkiln Reservoir. The view of the reservoir from the initial part of the walk is somewhat spoilt by overhead cables.
Looking back to Glenkiln Reservoir:
I followed the track for several hundred metres before abandoning it to take a more direct line up the hill. There was much less snow on this hill compared with Lamington Hill.
During the ascent I again picked up a track which I followed to the summit.
Looking towards the summit of Bishop Forest Hill:
I spent longer at this summit as it was not particularly cold. I took photos from atop the cairn and from the trig point.
View from atop the large summit cairn:
At the trig point:
I then put the camera on self-timer and had to run from camera to atop the cairn within 10 seconds. Tried it and failed. Tried it and failed. Third time lucky, I made it. Think I need a camera with a longer self-timer as I get older!
1000th Scottish Marilyn:
I returned to the van via roughly the same route before heading to Dumfries for tea. I then made my way down to the Solway Coast where I am currently parked-up writing this report.
The view from my overnight spot tonight is lovely.
Evening view looking across the Solway Firth towards Cumbria (12 photos stitched):
