Last peek at dunrod hill

One last snap before we walked home for a late tea. You should just be able to see the trig marker if you squint. The sun sets directly over the summit where I popped the question. We are swithering over plans for the weekend to try and wrap up the summer holidays on a high with a camping trip somewhere. The forecast for Saturday looks iffy. Sunday is better though. Will keep you posted...Stephen.

Dunrod hill at sunset

Dougs and myself made our way home but not before we snapped this shot of dunrod hill. The highest point on the horizon is where I proposed to Diane.

Side view of causeway

Again the causeway sticks out a mile in the foreground. Can you see horses and carts going along that nearly two hundred years back in your minds eye?

The hidden causeway

Every ten years or so the water level of loch thom drops enough for you to see a few things which are normally hidden by the water. The loch was completed in 1827 but the capacity was increased some time after that. The roads and causeways used to ferry workmen and materials around this construction site were lost beneath the peat stained water when the water levels were raised. You can see one of these old causeways here. It's interesting to note that these features are now showing more frequently in the summer. Is this another sign that global warming is kicking in? The population of the town is falling so surely water consumption is dropping, even if we do have more dishwashers in the town than before. Maybe it's the ever increasing size of water pistols thats to blame for this loss of water. Water pistols in the 80's were palm sized. Now they are rambo sized super soakers :-)

The derelict farmhouse

The estate agents description for this place would read ..'property with great development potential suitable for the aspirant diy enthusiast'. I dont know why this place was abandoned. Obviously it's a wreck now. It would be a great wee location for someone looking for a quiet retreat with great views across loch thom. Think Jack Nicolson and 'the shining'. It would be a total rebuild job though. Passed this on the way home.

South summit of creuch hill

The creuch ruins from the actual summit marker and trig point of creuch hill.

More summit photos

On a good day there are nice views across the river. Loch thom can be seen as well. I took these pictures next to the actual trig marker. It's an ugly wreck of a thing, a few mangled blocks of concrete with a rusty iron post leaning out the jumble. I didn't publish a photo of it. No wonder Craig and myself overlooked it last time we came up here. At least the mystery was solved.

The creuch ruins

The view towards lochwinnoch. It's a long way but I walked there last year with my brother and cousin and we did an overnighter at the old mine. My brother Craig came up with me last time in the middle of winter. You couldn't see zip. We also couldnt see the trig point marker either because the visibility was so bad in the hill fog. It began snowing too. The town got snowed in good style that night. It was nice to get a chance to look around for a change.

Inverkip from creuch hill

You can just see the power station stack in the distance. The stones here are the remains of sheepfolds and shelters I think.

View from the summit

Views towards paisley and glasgow from creuch hill. The views were good but not as impressive as some others because it is very barren up here and you are quite far back from the firth. It's pretty featureless moorland for miles around. Easy to get lost and it can be a miserable place in bad weather. The cloud just hangs on like grim death. The next stop east of here is lochwinnoch. A good four hours walk away. The disused barytes mine makes an unusual stop over if you fancy it.

Approach to the summit

The final approach to the south summit of creuch hill. There is no path to follow, so the going is pretty rough underfoot. Parts are marshy and the ground is uneven. There are also a few drainage channels cut into the peat as well and these are often hidden by the heather stumps or reeds. Just watch where you place your feet.

Fearless hound

Dougs shows scant care for his personal safety and well being as he plays at the edge of a raging waterfall. Hairy nutcase. Oi!! Nutter!!

Dougster

Dougs takes a breather and a share of my shnacks before slogging onto the summit.

The bridge

We walked on past the bridge up the old largs road before turning left onto the moor for the summit.

Creuch hill walk

Took Dougs (my dog) up to creuch hill today. Creuch hill is the highest hill in Greenock as far as I'm aware. We walked up to loch thom via whinhill then up the old largs road. The picture shows loch thom. This loch provides inverclyde with its drinking water. The water level is very low just now. The lowest I have seen it in ten years or so.

Back on terra firma

It was all over too fast. I have no idea what the helicopter engineer is doing in the background. We left the heli-pad and took a tour of the air museum including the tour of one of the retired concordes. It niffed of oxters and Bee Ohh inside. Disappointing...I think I would be a bit hacked off if I shelled out six grand plus for a one way ticket to find that the air crew were scrimping a bit on the scooshes of air freshener. After that we baled (haw haw .. air theme u see :-) ..) into the city centre for a pub crawl with cocktails. We ended up in a place called 'fishers in the city'. I would absolutely recommend it. Lovely food and the staff were super friendly and hyper efficient. We had the works including champagne and oysters..A great night to round off a great day.

Portobello beach

We also got a peek of portobello beach from the air. Next day we drove through it and found it to be foosty, drab and lacking. Don't go there. It looks better from the sky, which is, to be fair, a long way off. It's for the best.

Arthur's seat from the heli

Arthur's seat from the air.

In the helicopter

Neither of us needed to reach for the sick bags. Once you were up to speed it was surprisingly smooth. I expected it to be a bit more bumpy than it was. We did a scout round the city at around 12,000 ft. The weather was perfect despite the dodgy forecast.

WE ARE GONNA CRASH!!

The pilot introduced himself as 'Henry'. When things went quiet for a couple of mins I got a bit more concerned for Henry's well being. I realised that with the pilot sitting away from you pretty much motionless and mute, their eyes could be fixed and dilated yet you would have no clue that your pilot had expired and become a stiff some time ago. Cue the scenes from airplane :-)

Helicopter trip

As a break from the outdoor blog I thought I would do a wee trip journal to provide a tangential slant to my site. Hope you don't mind :-) Diane booked a helicopter trip over Edinburgh for my birthday way back in June so we decided to head out to auld reekie and make a proper weekend of it. We had a total blast. It was nail biting stuff though on the day of the heli trip because we very nearly missed it. An accident on the A1 and a missed turn off almost cost us the flight but people upstairs were smiling on us in more ways than one and we just made it with seconds to spare!!