KYQ4: Lomond Hills, Fife

Approaching East Lomond

The Lomond Hills in Fife have passed me by on numerous occasions when travelling to meetings or events in St Andrews or Fife House, Glenrothes. I had always promised to stop and run them at the end of the day but time and work conspired against it. I had been looking for a decent spell of weather in the far north but nothing was doing. I noticed that Sunday was fine in Fife so I decided to make an excursion to climb them. Gregor agreed to come along and he would run them along with Bishop's Hill, and the shore path around Loch Leven to give him a 25 kilometre run to Milnathort where I would collect him.

It was the day the clocks went back, always a special day for the hills. It was the weekend of the Karrimor International Mountain Marathons, which I had competed on 13 occasions between 1976 to 1998 and the Snowdon Marathon that I ran in 1988. The extra hour meant that we could make a lazy start and still be walking or running by 9am from the Craigmead car park that sits on the saddle between West And East Lomond. There were only four cars there when we arrived. It was barely above freezing as we started out on a crystal clear morning with blue skies and a strong northerly breeze.

Sunday 27 October 2019

Lomond Hills

Ascent: 526 metres

Distance: 11 kilometres

Time: 2 hours 14 minutes

East Lomond 434m 23mins

West Lomond 522m 1hr 33mins

We decided to take in East Lomond Hill first so that Gregor could continue from West Lomond Hill to Bishop's Hill and then drop down to Loch Leven and follow the trail to Milnathort. The ice on the rocks on the initial section of the path was thawing and the first kilometre of the path was an easy pull before the final 100 metres of ascent to the summit on a grassy path. Gregor passed me on his descent at this point, the last I would see of him until Milnathort. The wind at the summit was not welcoming but it was trumped by the glorious patchwork field pattern of Fife displaying all its autumnal shades. I spent a few minutes inhaling the air and the views before descending by the same route. I passed another 3 walkers and 2 runners on their ascent.

I had intended to collect my rucsac at the car park for the ascent of West Lomond but there would be no need of it in these conditions so I stopped for some water before continuing on the longer of the two walks. The path makes it an easy ascent, initially over short grass and then a wide stony path that climbs at a gentle gradient. The final 110 metres is the real climb and there is an option of a direct ascent up a steep path on a slightly muddy path or a half circuit of the hill at a more relaxing gradient. I chose the former and it proved no bother, I was walking well. The summit has a trig point on a stony base that seems to be eroding rapidly. The sun was higher in the sky and the views were not as clear as earlier in the day but Fife was dressed in its Sunday best. The Forth estuary provided a shimmering silver boundary to the south punctuated by Inchkeith, a perfect isosceles triangle.

There had been few other walkers on the ascent but on the return to the car park the number of people exercising was impressive. I counted 29 women, 25 men, 12 dogs walking up the hill along with a lone runner and 6 mountain bikers. It confirmed the impression that I have had in recent years that there are as many women as men now enjoying the great outdoors and that mountain bikes make a mess of the grassy footpaths. I have no qualms about mountain bikes on tracks and hard trails but too many paths on the hills are being badly eroded by bikes. The car park at Craigmead was full as people began their walks. It was just after 11:00am and my exercise was over. I drove back to Milnathort and arrived within minutes of Gregor, we had really made the best use of the morning and we could now look forward to the Liverpool game.