Weather/Conditions: Strange, grim mid-winter weather!
Distance/Ascent/Time: 5.2km / 480m / 1h 40m
Accompanying: Alone

Craig of Monievreckie is a top rising out of forest just above Aberfoyle, right on the Highland Boundary Fault. It's conspicuous, but also essentially overlooked. It was another hill climbed on my casual HuMP bagging exploits - and anyway, it was the end of January, the cloud was down on the hills, and anything above 500m was entirely obliterated by mist. So this modest forest top would do me well.

I drove out and parked up at Braeval, which doesn't seem to boast a whole lot else than a well-signposted car park. It is an entry into these areas, a winding region of forestry tracks and hillocks, the start of the Highlands, but somehow different in character to the Highlands. It was a dull, damp morning, Quiet, with little wildlife, silent and grey. Just one guy sitting in his van, perhaps reading the paper.



I set off up the tracks, up though the trees then by little crags of conglomerate rock. This rock is the same as on Conic Hill, also on the Highland Boundary Fault and doubtless of the same composition.

I cut out onto moorland, thinning out to heather and grasses. The views were bleak: only Ben A'an could be seen to the north - all around hills disappeared into a ceiling of mist. Southward, the flats of the Endrick Valley stretched to the horizon, but somewhere along the way got lost to the grey. A trig point marked the top of the hill.

My descent was by route of ascent, with a minor deviation in the forest - I missed my turn off and carried on down the tracks (slightly longer). On the way home I had a quick look in at Craigmore, but it was soaking, as expected.

360° Panorama

Craig of Monievreckie