Weather/Conditions: Sunny winter weather. Bit of snow on the higher tops.
Distance/Ascent/Time: 3.7km / 400m / 1h 10m
Accompanying: Rosie (the dog)

If you take a dog up mountains, I can think of better hills to do than Dumgoyne. Rosie isn't my dog, but I agreed to take her up a hill 'not too big', and only for an afternoon. Dumgoyne would do.

Walking up hills with a dog is a totally different ball-game to doing the same on your own (as I'd quickly found out on Rosie's first time up Dumgoyne in December). I started from the distillery and from the moment of leaving was tying her lead to me in different way to get her to pull me uphill. For a well trained dog, she'll pull and pull and pull... The sheep didn't like her presence, and since they were almost all the way to the summit, I was left with the interesting situation of taking a dog on a lead up the steep stuff.

Well, it was a relief to finally let her go on the top - no sheep here, obviously. It was a settled evening, the kind of winter sunset I've always loved. Ben Lomond had it's cap of snow, the Campsies had their share on the plateau.

Going down is also an interesting experience - I think I walked more directly off the top. A dog pulling downhill is much worse than the same uphill, and Rosie pulled just when I needed balance... We got off the hill as the sun dipped beneath Auchineden and got back to the car without too many falls. She'd be a lot more fun on a hill without sheep! (Munros, next time?)