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| The Whangie |
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| Auchineden Hill (Whangie) summit |
2 January, 2025
Ascent: 190 metresDistance 4 kilometres
Time: 1 hr 16mins
After several days of wind and rain, the mercury dropped, the skies were cobalt, and the wind was a mere whiff. I collected Gregor, and we drove the 5 miles to the Whangie car park, now equipped with a QR code parking meter, the right to roam is now being commercialised. I occasionally ran up the Whangie on my way home from work in the 1990s and competed in the annual hill race. Today it was a different time and place. The car park was full and families were venturing onto the muddy path coated with snow and frozen hard.
There were lethal icy patches that required people to tread with some trepidation, although the children seemed happy to start the year with a few falls. My trail shoes gave me a reasonable grip as we walked out to the rock structures that formed the impressive corridor through the Whangie. The views over Loch Lomond and the Arrochar Alps were slightly hazy and the lengthening shadows on the Campsies to the west best captured the magic of a winter's day.
We climbed from the Whangie to the summit of Auchineden Hill, the two are synonymous, where an austere-looking trig point stood guard. There was an impressive view south to Glasgow that was punctuated by high-rise flats floodlit by the late afternoon sun. Families were still struggling on their ascent as we hurried down from the summit. The well-worn path was already freezing but there were muddy boggy sections and sections of ice to keep us alert. As a short outing, the sun, snow and views made it a grand way to start the year. We were back before 4 pm and watched a few episodes of Slow Horses to tune into the zeitgeist of 2025.
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| Start of the Whangie climb |
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| West Face of the Whangie |
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| The Whangie Canyon |
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| Glasgow from the Whangie |
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| The Campsies from the Whangie |
