The Ochil Hills

Sunday 26th May 2013

My annual two-week holiday in Scotland started in the historic city of Stirling and in order to gradually get myself into the groove for the fortnight I began with some easier walking nearby. After a wonderful evening spent in glorious weather exploring the castle and the nearby Wallace Monument, I awoke to a more overcast day with the good weather of the previous day a distant memory. Not far from Stirling is a range of hills called the Ochil Hills whose most striking feature is in the deep ravines on the southern edge of the escarpment that lead down to a string of towns at the foot of the hills sited to take advantage of water-power from the fast moving burns. First thing in the morning I caught a bus to one of these towns, Tillicoultry, where I walked up into the Ochil Hills through the ravine of Mill Glen, a name that gives a hint of the area's industrial past. Unfortunately, when I got to the start of the path through the glen, I found that it had been closed due to the danger of rockfall.

This was a disappointing start to the walk as I’m sure the ravine would have been exactly the sort of place that I love to walk. Undeterred I took the diversion that climbs the hillside overlooking the town and the wider Forth Valley before contouring around the side of the hill high above the glen. This may not have been my intended route, but it was an excellent path that zigzags cleverly up the southern slope of the hill and later clings precipitously above the glen affording me with tremendous views into the deep, murky ravine before eventually dropping down a series of steps into the valley and joining the closed footpath. After crossing the burn I climbed the steep, grassy hill opposite up to the top of the hills where my interest in the walk diminished. The best bits of this walk were in the ravines while the actual tops were relatively dull as the path continued up the grassy hillside to the slender top of the Law where I found myself in the clouds.

It was quite cold and miserable at the top and the terrain didn’t improve as the narrow ridge opened out and gradually led me up easy slopes to the top of Ben Cleuch, the highest point in the Ochil Hills and classified as a Graham in the vast array of Scottish hill lists. The Ochil Hills are mainly just an undulating range of grassy hills with no significant peaks in them. I could have traipsed across all of the hills, through many bogs, bagging each and every top above two thousand feet, but it wasn’t the weather for such an endeavour and I really couldn’t be bothered. I continued along the top of the hill and gradually descended grassy slopes and turning towards the south and the col at the top of Millglen Burn. Passing over the top of Ben Ever I joined a track that descends steeply to the col between the Glenwinniel Burn and the Silver Burn. The low hill ahead of me at this point is marked as a viewpoint on maps so I climbed the short slope up to the top of the Nebit where I had my lunch while gazing across the wide Forth Valley.

After eating I came down from the top of the Nebit but on reaching a track I turned right and followed it round the lower slopes of the hill and back up into the hills high above the Alva Burn. It wasn’t my intention to climb back up into the hills, but to descend into Alva Glen where I hoped to discover the delights that this ravine would reveal, but this is such a deep glen it wasn’t until the Strabanster Burn joins the Alva Burn that I was finally able to safely get down the steep slopes from the track to the bottom of the valley. There I found a faint path beside the burn that eventually improved fabulously and stays safely above the spectacularly narrow ravine before steeply descending many zigzags, where an abundant array of wild flowers delightfully graced the hillside, into the glen for an exciting walk through the gorge. This path was just getting better and better from its meagre beginnings to the heavily constructed boardwalks that clung to the rocks at the bottom of the ravine. Alva Glen more than made up for my disappointment in missing out on Mill Glen as this glen was full of so many wild flowers I was enthralled and excited at every turn of the path until eventually it led me down into the town of Alva.

On reaching the outskirts of Alva I found a path that led me into the Ochil Hills Woodland Park, but this was a little disappointing after the excitement of Alva Glen. It was a nice wood really, especially since it was full of bluebells, but it couldn’t compete with the abundance of wild flowers in the glen. Tillicoultry lay a short distance beyond the wood and brought to a close a walk that was surprisingly much better than I had anticipated. I had thought this walk was going to be very short, but by diverting to Alva Glen I not only managed to extend the walk but passed through a fantastic glen that was easily the highlight of the day, if not the whole holiday. Before catching a bus back to Stirling I investigated the damage to the path in Mill Glen, climbing around the barrier that had closed off the path (at my own risk, of course). I found that large boulders had fallen onto the path in several places not only blocking the path but damaging the metal handrail that guards against falls into the deep ravine. I could easily see why the path had been closed and actually decided to turn back myself because the path was too damaged. This is a great pity as what I saw would have made for an exciting walk, but maybe not as good as that through Alva Glen. I look forward to returning when the path has been repaired and maybe exploring some of the other glens in the area as they are definitely the jewels in the Ochil Hills.