From Hillwell, we followed the excellent track through grassy fields towards Fitful Head.
On the track towards Fitful Head:
Looking back:
On reaching the col between the 158m hill and Fitful Head, we got excellent views of the Yuxness cliffs.
Yuxness cliffs:
During the final ascent, we could see bad weather approaching. Before reaching the summit, I stopped to put on my waterproofs.
Stormy weather coming in:
The rain started as we reached the summit area which contains a radar dome.
NATS radar at summit of Fitful Head:
We skirted round the building to reach the trig point and the featureless summit five metres beyond.
Trig point 5m from the featureless summit of Fitful Head:
At the summit, I briefly climbed the fence for a look over the cliffs. Although not vertical, the cliffs drop from 283m to sea level over a very short distance.
283m drop from the summit:
During the walk back towards the car, I stopped to take a photo of the coastline North of Fitful Head and one looking across to Foula.
Coastline north of Fitful Head:
Foula (zoom):
On returning to the car we drove to the start of the track leading to the summit of Ward of Scousburgh.
Hill: Ward of Scousburgh
Date: Wednesday 22nd May 2013
Company: Myself, John and Derrick
Distance: 3.3km, Ascent: 170m
Time: 50Mins
During the ascent of Ward of Scousburgh we got fairly good views looking South towards Sumburgh Head.
Looking South towards Sumburgh Head:
A short distance below the summit are a collection of derelict MoD buildings.
Disused buildings on Ward of Scousburgh:
Approaching the summit transmitters:
As we approached the summit, a Ringed Plover landed a short distance in front of us and then kept pace with us always staying circa 10 – 20 feet ahead.
Ringed Plover:
Ringed Plover:
On reaching the summit area we went through the gate at the second transmitter to avoid climbing over the barbed-wire fence. We visited the trig point and the featureless summit five metres beyond.
Looking South from the summit of Ward of Scousburgh:
Looking North from the summit of Ward of Scousburgh:
From the summit we continued walking a short distance South-West to take some photos looking across to Fitful Head.
Fitful Head from Ward of Scousburgh:
During the walk back, I stopped to get a photo of St. Ninian’s Isle which
is connected to the mainland by a tombolo.
St. Ninian’s Isle:
On returning to the car, after a quick bite to eat we continued on to our third and final hill of the day, Royl Field.
Before ascending Royl Field, I changed into my boots as much of the ascent would be across pathless terrain.
Hill: Royl Field
Date: Wednesday 22nd May 2013
Company: Myself, John and Derrick
Distance: 6.9km, Ascent: 335m
Time: 1Hr 55Mins
We parked at the end of the road at the settlement of Blett. We then followed the track to a height of circa 140m before ascending Scroo.
Start of ascent of Royl Field:
At Culter Field there was a tractor flattening out land possibly for a future windfarm (given the pre-windfarm transmitter that is also located there).
Pre-windfarm works?:
During the ascent of Scroo we got good views across to Bressay and Noss.
Bressay and Isle of Noss (zoom):
From Scroo we dropped to the bealach before starting our ascent of Royl Field.
Royl Field:
Looking back to Scroo:
As we approached the summit of Royl Field the ground flattened out providing easy walking to the summit.
Final ascent to summit of Royl Field:
Summit of Royl Field:
From the summit we returned to the car via roughly the same route with the exception of skirting round Scroo.
During the return we were blasted by hailstones on a couple of occasions. On the
whole though the weather was much better than expected
.