A long overdue hillwalk

I hit the hills yesterday for my first walk in an unforgivably long time. There was a time when I used to head out hill walking once every month or two, but life and times change and so do our priorities, and hill walking's been one of the casualties. So it was fantastic to be reminded of the glory of the Scottish hills on a sunny, breezy, snowy spring day.

Cathy and I drove north out of Edinburgh in the sunshine, with the aim of popping up Meall nan Tarmachan and then along the Tarmachan ridge, a lovely walk on the skyline above Killin. It was a sign of how long it's been since I was up that way when we tried to park at the Ben Lawers NTS visitor centre, only to find it's been totally demolished and is a sea of mud reverting back to moorland. Luckily there's a replacement car park across the road which is just about accessible to the careful driver, and a good path linking with the start of the Tarmachan route. We had a nice easy saunter up to the top of the hill, stopping to snack and enjoy the views above the Lochan nan Lairige reservoir (looking very low) and the Lawers Dam, one of the 1950s hydro schemes that brought grand engineering works to so many Scottish valleys.

At the top the wind was howling and a shower blowing through. We ate our peanut butter sandwiches in the swirling cloud and snow and decided that minimising discomfort was the better part of pleasure, and abandoned the ridge walk for a better option. Retracing our steps to the car was as lovely as the ascent, even with a brief exciting interlude when my leg disappeared into a hole while clambering back down a steep snow bank and I nearly slipped head-first down to the heather below. Back in Killin we had coffee and some very nice rhubarb crumble and pottered about at the Falls of Dochart before wending our way back to Edinburgh with the sun setting over the central belt. A perfect day in the hills.