Meikle Bin (570m)

I joined Ian today as he headed to Meikle Bin for the purpose of checking out the south side of the hill, and to establish just how feasible it was to descend south from the summit, transit a short sections of forest, and then pick up a forest track leading towards Burnhouse and eventually the southern shores of the Carron Valley Reservoir.

Although there had been some snow and very cold nights over the past week, the morning was fine and clear, with no snow on the hills, therefore we were quite surprised to find the first kilometre or so of the forest track leading away from the car park at Todholes covered in a thick layer of ice. Fortunately, any significant icing disappeared as we gained height and the forest opened out above us. as we climbed steadily towards Bin Bairn and the point were we would leave the forest and make the short climb over open hillside towards the cairn marking the 570m summit of Meikle Bin.

The OS 25,000 maps show a path leaving the summit of Meikle Bin and heading generally south towards the forest boundary, but petering out just before it reaches the forest, and it was this path which we took on an easy descent of the grassy ridge with the smaller Birkenburn Reservoir a prominent point of view beyond the forest. A break in the forest, not quite a firebreak, but defined enough to pass along gave us entrance to the forest, and a short distance further along, we came to an obvious firebreak which we had previously decided would be our route through the forest and out to the forest track.

A little overgrown, and blocked in a couple of places by fallen trees, which we easily by-passed, this firebreak took us nicely to the other side of the forest, over a small gully and right onto the turning area where the forest track commenced its journey towards Burnhouse and onwards to the Carron Valley Reservoir. Job Done.

Looking forward to repeating this walk with the group as our last walk before Christmas. Hoping the weather is as pleasant as it was today, and that I remember my camera, hence the lack of photos to accompany this report.