The History - a personal note
Living for a quarter of a century at Glenhead helped me to discover many ways through the Ochil hills. At any time of year, the quiet and the lure of new discoveries drew me up onto the tops, day and night. Sedentary work and bored dogs would send me out; sometimes for an hour, sometimes most of the day. I especially loved roaming at night or as the sun rose. The network of quad tracks and sheep trods offer many choices and are accessible to anyone with a reasonable degree of fitness and mobility.
Ever curious and somewhat restless, I wanted to see how far I could walk in a day. Trips to Cleuch summit and back would take me about five hours, allowing for pauses, diversions and time on the top, so I reasoned that Cleuch (a Graham at 721m / 2365' NN902006 OS Landranger 58) could be considered a near-half-way point and, from this, a plan took shape.
I admit to a fascination bordering on obsession with maps. Specifically, the names of places and features in the landscape which were thought worthy of recording. Each bump and cleft, each piece of ground bears a name which speaks to us of when these hills were populated. People who dug their peats, grew crops, tended livestock and built walls. People about whom you are forced to wonder when you study a 1:25000 OS map. Especially when you are doing so up on the tops, walking a path which now seems so remote yet was probably a way to school, to market or to church for someone. You get a sense of how transient life is and an appreciation of how important traditions and names are in that context. You thought it was just a walk but, in fact, it is about engaging with history; communing with our ancestors.
For many years Glenhead was the point from which most walks began and so it was with what we later dubbed the Transochilator. It involved going west as far as I could on the tops and finishing at the Sheriffmuir Inn, which was a good accessible place from which to be collected, after a suitable pause for refreshment at the bar. Later, it developed into a trek between two inns and reversed direction; it now starts from the Sheriffmuir Inn and ends at the Tormaukin Inn in Glendevon. At my pace, it means arriving at the Tormaukin Inn just as it is getting dark; so a good length.
Naming the route may seem silly but it was spoken of with a sense of mock grandeur, while also honouring the tradition of naming things, however seemingly inconsequential. The route takes in the main peaks between the two inns and it tracks the spine of the Ochils. There is much upping and downing but throughout the day a walker is exposed to the magnificent changing views of the Ochil hills and way beyond.
On Cleuch, facing east, you can see the Cairngorms, Bass Rock and Berwick Law. Facing north west, on a clear day, you can see Ben Nevis and, also, way beyond Ben Lomond to the west. Ben Vorlich and Stuc a' Chroin are almost always in view whether on Mickle Corum, Cleuch or Tarmangie but their distinct forms seem to change scale throughout the day, as you climb and descend and as the light changes.
AR
