It is some time since I had ventured into my local hills and so today, instead of driving off to another area it was just a short drive up the Haul Road to the small parking area by the radio mast above Ballevoulin Farm for an as yet undecided route but with Beinn Tharsuinn as a starter, from there it was to be a wait and see from the options available.

Across the Haul Road and onto the rough grass and tussocks of the lower slopes of Auchengaich Hill for a steep start to the day, through the rough and up to the gate above the forested area and the ground underfoot changes to the more easily trodden short grass covered slopes of the broad ridge leading steadily uphill to Auchengaich Hill. There is no defined track, however, these are sheep grazing hills, and as usual it is possible to pick up the flatten grasses over which ATV’s have taken those to tend to and manage their flocks and which offer quite a smooth means of traversing the rougher ground.

The summit of Auchengaich Hill is unmarked by cairn or Trig Point, however Mike knew of a “spot” where, in the past a “lollipop” marker had been placed. This comprised of a short stick, no more than 12 inches long with the name “Auchengaich” printed on it together with the height of the hill, which offered a challenge to see if it could be found. A short wander around slightly off the main track, trying to identify which hump of grass was actually the highest point on the top we eventually found two broken pieces of the stick, it having finally succumbed to the elements and disintegrated somewhat.

“Lollipop” search over, we continued uphill still managing to follow the faint outlines of an ATV track and towards the summit of Beinn Tharsuinn, where here there is a cairn, albeit a very small cairn marking the 656m summit. Here we took a short break to weigh up our options; continue on north to Beinn Chaorach and then simply retrace our steps back to the start, or, being as the rainfall levels were very low over the summer, should we venture on the circuit via Balcnock in the hope that the notoriously boggy Bealach a’Chabair and the peat hags of Balcnock were dry enough for an easy transit. Decision taken, we would do the circuit, Bealach a’Chabair and Bolcnock it would be.

An easy descent down to the bealach to find it really easy to cross, it wasn’t entirely dry with a few shallow ponds of water and some soft ground underfoot, but these were easily by-passed and we were then onto a steady climb again up fine grassy slopes to the highest point on the circuit, the 693m un-named top, an anomaly whereby the two tops on either side of it, Beinn Tharsuinn and Balcnock are both lower in height while this central top is in fact the highest of the trio. Here we settled down for a spot of lunch in a slightly cooler breeze than was expected, although I certainly was not going to complain, the forecast was for clear skies and rising temperatures, but we found that during our ascent a fine layer of high cloud, I believe it is called cirrostratus, and a coolish breeze kept us nice a cool.

Downhill all the way from the 693m top, we simply followed the fenceline along the ridge to Balcnock and again found that the rather large peat hags that line this area were very dry and easy to wind our way through. Our final decision of the day was at which point should we begin our drop-off generally south to the exit gate back onto the Haul Road. Knowledge of these hills forewarned us that whichever point we picked, it would be a steep descent, and as we found, gone were the fine grassy slopes to be replaced by variations of deep and heavy tussocks, reeds and bracken, with no discernible way through other than zig-zagging our way down and around those areas we thought were slightly less heavily vegetated. It was a slow progress, and when I looked at the walk statistics at the end of the walk, the last kilometre down this hillside was the slowest kilometre of the whole walk, but thankfully, once on the short section of track at the base of the hill we were soon back to crossing the Haul Road and back to our cars.

Another fine day in the hills, and a welcome return for me to the grassy hills of Glen Fruin.

Thanks again Mike for your company.