Over The Hill

Gualann is a somewhat unimpressive hill situated in open moorland northeast of the popular Conic Hill, and just outside of the southern boundary of Loch Ard Forest. It does however offer some wonderful views on both the approach through the forest and from its 461m summit. The route from Drymen Cottage to the summit is two phase, initially easy walking on wide open and good forest tracks followed by an ascent over rough moorland terrain; with the reverse applying to the descent which also included a bash across two hundred metres of felled and decayed forest.

Leaving the car park at Drymen Cottage we took the southern-most track through the forest, and for the next five kilometres strolled briskly along the fine path enjoying the views north and east over the open landscape. Views which included Ben Lomond, Ben Ledi and in the far distance, away to the east the Wallace Monument was clearly visible in the bright blue November skyline. Shortly after the five kilometre point we took a short break at the point at which we would leave the forest track behind and begin the climb towards the summit of Gualann

At this point the OS 25000 mapping clearly shows a fork in the forest track, both legs of the fork designated as "track". Well, maybe they were sometime in the past, but today the left fork was almost indistinguishable from the grass and shrub around it, the giveaway was however the standard bar gate on the left fork, and on closer examination the faintest of twin vehicle ruts heading up the overgrown track. We took a short break by the barrier before heading off up the indistinct track, switching from one rut to the other whichever made the easier walking as we steadily climbed uphill with the track eventually running alongside of a high deer fence as it formed a 3-sided box before ending, as shown on the OS mapping a a footbridge over a small burn. The footbridge proved to be the most difficult object of the walk so far, it was lying at an angle end extremely slippy, so much so that after the first few had slithered across it, the remained of us decided the short jump across the burn was the better option.

Across the burn it was just a matter of taking a direct line uphill, generally paralleling the burn to our right. Here the ground underfoot was of old forest stumps, overgrown and well camouflaged, making for slow progress. Eventually we gained the open moorland beyond a broken boundary fence, and once over a second fence, it was a straight forward walk to the small cairn marking the 461m summit of Gualann. It may be small in stature, and a rough ascent from any direction, but once on the summit Gualann proves to be a small gem, with wonderful views over Conic Hill and Loch Lomond, views well worth the effort; and on a fine day as we had, it was great to settle down to lunch and just soak up the views.

Idris had warned us that the primary descent route was 4kms over very rough tussock and wet ground, but enroute we would check out a couple of breaks in the forest which might offer an option to rejoin the main forest track at an earlier stage in the descent. Steeply down the eastern slopes of Gualann and hugging the forest boundary we had completed about 2kms when a gap of about 50 metres wide in the forest ran for 200 metres directly onto the main forest track. However, it was not the clearest of gaps, underfoot being ankle breaking tree stumps and decaying branches. We scaled the high boundary fence, and with a great deal of caution made our way gingerly down towards the forest track. It was a long 200 metres, and we eventually strayed from the gap back into the forest for the final few metres to the track.

Back on the main forest track, we forked off almost immediately to make a sweeping turn to an almost parallel track which gave us a fine figure-of-eight route back to Drymen Cottage for the end of a great day on the hills, irrespective of the heavy showers that we encountered in the final stages of the walk.

A great day with a mixture of easy walking and some more challenging sections. Thanks everyone for your fine company, and to you Idris for yet another fantastic walk.