Thursday 22 March 2012 - Creag Uchdag (and the arrival of Spring)

Blue skies greeted us this lovely Spring morning, but I heard nothing from Maggie, Ellie or Milo as I warmed my croissant before setting off from Dunkeld's Hilton.

Today's objective, Creag Uchdag, involved driving up picturesque Glen Lednock, past a lone lady mountain biker - the only person seen 'on the hill' today - from the pretty village of Comrie. It's then a half hour walk up the road from the car park to the dam. On the way up there are good views of an extensive waterfall spreadeagled over some rocks below the dam.

The reservoir was less than full, and is overlooked by a well positioned bench dedicated to the memory of Charles G Robertson, who was involved in the dam's construction. Tea break number one was taken here, once the resident Oyster Catchers had adjourned to a safe position.

A further couple of hours saw me scurrying over the minor summit of Meall Dubh Mòr and up to the trig point pictured above. From this highest vantage point (879 metres) for miles around, the panoramic views were outstanding.

After lingering on the top for some time, a fairly quick descent - avoiding the slurpy bits - had me back down at the bench for tea break number three pretty quickly, though I paused for a while to watch some Golden Plovers, and also a pair of birds of prey, which I took to be Buzzards. There were also some smaller mouse hunting birds that I failed to identify.

Then it was back to base for a pleasant afternoon with my hosts, who are enjoying a very 'chilled out' week.

Sadly, this fine day on the hill was rather overshadowed by the receipt of some very bad news concerning the health of a good friend from University days.

And I'd like to wish Alan R a speedy recovery from his much less serious - albeit terrifying - trip to the 'doc'; thanks also go to my 'secretary', who has succeeded in unlocking the Salford slide show from the grasp of Google.

Slideshow now here.