I always enjoy a days walking in the Campsie Fells, the rolling, grassy and very often wet Campsies make a change from the higher heather clad and rocky mountains to their west and north. Today we were bound for the minor top of Dumbreck, at 508m high a top that is to most walkers simply a passing point enroute to highest point of The Campsie Fells, Earl’s Seat.

We left the car park at Clachan of Campsie and after a short walk along the roadside we turned north along a farm access track and were soon crossing the lush green fields of the lower pastures on the west side of Fin Glen. The green fields and farm gates quickly morphed into drystone walls and bracken through which a narrow path was easily followed as it rose above Finglen Burn with it’s waterfalls all of which remained unseen by us as the density of the woodlands in the glen below obscured anything below their thick canopy of branches in winter colours. On the ridge itself however two prominent markers were clearly visible, a ruin of standing walls indicated a substantial dwelling had at some time dominated the hill above the pastures, and, a little further up the ridge, around the 230m height a metre high cairn, what it was marking, other than simply a point along the track was not obvious.

Across the 300m height and yet again a change underfoot, gone was the pleasant grassy track and we were now well into the deep tufts of grass and areas of sphagnum moss so common all over the higher ground of the Campsies, as are the fencelines that criss-cross the hillside. And it was now a matter of plodding along beside a fenceline, or cutting diagonally towards a fenceline as we made steady progress up the gentle slopes heading towards the as yet undistinguishable minor top as it blended into the open hillsides ahead. Eventually we met and joined the main track I mentioned earlier for those make a direct ascent to Earl’s Seat, and it was along this we wandered for the final kilometre to the cairn marking the 508m high summit of Dumbreck.

The weather was kind to us, as far as it being a beautiful dry day, with mainly clear skies and excellent visibility. However, there was a chilling northerly wind blowing which considerable added to the wind chill factor, especially over the exposed open hillsides, and so we lingered on the summit just long enough for a rather quick break before we set off on our descent towards the Strathkelvin Railway Path, a return route that took us back along the final kilometre we had just come, but then continuing on the main track and down the broad zig-zagging track which leads downhill to Ballagan Farm.

Across the main road, it was just a few hundred metres to the Strathkelvin Railway Path, which, as the name suggest follows the route of the long-gone Campsie branch of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. To our right as we join the path stands the 150m high Dunglass, a volcanic plug with a feature known as a crag and tail formation, the hard volcanic rock, the crag remains, however the softer sedimentary tail has eroded through time. An easy paced walk along the flat pathway and the car park at Clachan of Campsie was soon in sight.

Thanks Idris and all for your company on yet another great day in the hills.