#devil's burdens

[benvironment]

It's hard to believe, given the flash flooding in Aberdeenshire, but yesterday was a stunner of a day in the Lomond Hills. And I really couldn't have asked for better weather or for better company on the fifth of my six 'President's Walks' for Ramblers Scotland :)

I planned a winding, undulating and quite challenging route that eventually took us up to the top of West Lomond, but not before we'd explored its many nooks & crannies and seen the most that this wee hill has to offer

[benvironment]

It felt like the whole of Scotland was out in the hills today....and with good reason! Cool but calm, with lovely warm sunshine and hardly any wind. I did think about heading farther afield but I decided to stay local, and instead recce a walk I'm thinking of leading for the Ramblers later in the year - a thorough investigation of West Lomond, taking in the Devil's Burdens, Glenvale, the Bunnet Stane and the looooong steep haul up the eastern escarpment. Steep as it is, the zig-zag ascent from the Bunnet Stane isn't the steepest way up West Lomond. That honour goes to the monstrous 'direttissima' line that goes straight up the slopes above the bunnet. Scrambling on grass! ;-)

[benvironment]

Me and my pal this afternoon. Simply the coolest rock anywhere in Fife :)