UKC

Saw from my ride home. Looks like the new plantation above Menstrie 

We desperately need rain before the lockdown ends.

Thankfully the wind wasn't SW so not pushing it up the hill. Hope not too much is damaged. Looked big though

We were on Gillies Hill, at the crag looking out over Touch, a couple of weeks ago, when smoke started billowing up from over by Murrayshall Quarry, then also from by the path up from Cambusbarron Quarry. It started raining ash, and we called the fire brigade and retreated down through the woods; in the end it mostly just burned bracken and grass but covered a significant area.

There are the remains of lots of small fires on the way up from Cambusbarron Quarry now - looks like some idiot just kept setting fire to gorse bushes and dry undergrowth until it really went up. Never exactly clever, but particularly irresponsible just now.

I missed the Ochil fire there, can't quite see that end of them from home. It does seem as if someone sets the big slopes of bracken or gorse above the Hillfoots alight for a big fire at some point every year, it must present a tempting target for bored pyromaniacs.

The fell above Widdop reservoir between Burnley and Hebden Bridge went up yesterday. Walkers? Mountain bikers? Climbers? Or just a pyromaniac?

Torching the gorse is an annual pastime in the Hillfoots...

People probably.

It must have been quite late in the day yesterday - I wandered down to Menstrie off Colsnaur about 5pm and there was no sight/smell of anything burning at that stage. In the last half-hour from joining the main track I met a dozen people in dribs and drabs however, all heading uphill - very busy in terms of the current situation - so something could well have happened after that. Is more likely to have been the gorse than the young plantings, I think. I've just had a look through the binocs - can see along the Hillfoots from our bathroom window - but the angle of light's not great at this time of day and I can't see anything untoward. There was no sign of anything burning when I was out along the road here just before midnight looking for owls.

PS - Hello skog - hope you're keeping well in these strange times.

I really have very little to complain about, but it is all extremely unsettling and disorientating, isn't it?

Are you well too? I'm a little jealous of you over there on the other side of the strath, but we are objectively very lucky about what we can get out to here, it just isn't proper hills on this side!

On either side of the Menstrie Glen it's mainly bracken which is set on fire. I've always assumed that this was done for agricultural reasons [don't ask me what] and not as acts of vandalism but obviously I've been wrong.

Off piste! In the January of the year of the Beast from the East there had been a lot of snow over the festive season. The path up from Menstrie to the farm track was impassible due to gorse having been pushed over the path by the snow. I went along on a couple of occasions with loppers to cut a path through the gorse.  At a precarious point on the path a couple of hillwalkers squeezed past me and informed me that it was about time that the gorse was cut back. No good deed ever goes unpunished!

Good to hear you're doing OK. Unsettling and disorientating is a good way to put it. A lot of people seem to be gradually working out new habits and routines, to keep fit/sane insofar as they can. This side of town is handy, as you say - and whereas our being right on the eastern edge of Stirling was the worst place to be during the Beast from the East, it's now probably the best place given the easy access to quiet places. I've scarcely been across towards town at all - the footbridge is only 2m wide and a bottleneck, and despite sensible signage it's been the scene of several poor-behaviour incidents, so we're avoiding that if at all possible.

I'm mainly wearing a groove in Abbey Craig, often by quite circuitous routes (eg via Blairlogie - might do that again this afternoon in fact), but the occasional shopping trips for us or for the elderly neighbours are being combined with Ochil outings, as yesterday, so that's kept things feeling relatively normal in some ways. Those are the only times the car has moved - goodness knows when there'll next be a Munro or Ben Ledi or whatever - June?

Three of my main hill sidekicks are in Cumbria - I'm in regular touch with them and they're doing reasonably well although a few cracks are starting to show in terms of the frustrations and limitations - it seems to be considerably harder in various ways down there. All three are in their 70s (but fitter/stronger than me), and are worrying about long-term age-related restrictions that would clearly be bad for their general wellbeing given that they're all in better shape than the average 50-year-old.

Mind you, all the outdoor worries seem less tricky than those afflicting my other main pastime, chess. The season was at its most exciting stage when it came to an abrupt halt with the first of the restrictions in mid-March, and while online chess is an option it's not a patch on the real thing and crucially - as in so many areas - lacks the social side. Hard to see when over-the-board chess might properly get going again - it could be one of the last things to revive, given that it's impossible to do social distancing when you're sitting two feet away from someone for three hours, and the age-profile aspect isn't great with that either.

Anyway, people generally seem to be making some amazing efforts to cope as best they can, and things will ease eventually.

See, you should have just set fire to it...

No pleasing some people! The start of the Warrock Glen path was getting pretty thick as well. Had to crawl through the gorse tunnel last autumn.

According to a post on a local group, someone was seen dropping a cigarette and then leaving the fire that it started. There's been an arrest apparently. 

Good effort re the pruning.

Some of it is certainly "official", eg three or four years ago there was signage around some of the gorse on the Kips slope on Dumyat, saying that it was going to be burnt. Think it might have been SNH, although not sure. What's really needed is a revival of the goats. A Blairlogie friend now in his 80s tells of how when he was a boy there was a herd on the steep slopes above the village and a goatherd was employed to collect milk in which everyone had a share. The goats happily nibbled away at the young gorse bushes. At some stage long ago that stopped and now much of the hillside (and presumably some useful and interesting routes up/down) is choked with the jaggy stuff.

I think I know the bit you mean. Gorse can be astonishingly painful at times although I'd gladly put up with it for a chance to be out in the Ochils [or any hills] again and these terrible times to be over.

I know it's a cliche but stay safe everybody.

Some pics and info here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/715385905236355/

Hard to tell, but it looks to be about a third of the way up the western flank of Myreton, above the burn and below the main track.

Goats would be great. I find them interesting creatures. From memory, there are a few in Langdale in the Bow Fell direction. Any idea why there has been no sheep on Menstrie side of Dumyat for 2 years or so? And the Highland cows haven't been around for some time now.

For sure. The current trick (last time I went up that way, anyway, in Oct), is if coming from Blairlogie Meadow overshoot east beyond the traditional turn-uphill point. Go as far as where the grassy path starts to dip towards the burn, then cut back sharp left and work diagonally back uphill west from there - there's a reasonable path/gap through the lower band of gorse and you soon reach the standard way (which will be a bit skiddy just now with it being so dry/dusty).

There are also goats on Stuc a' Chroin on that steep messy slope round the corner left of the buttress - you can occasionally see them (or sometimes just smell them) on the section between the Falkirk cairn and the summit. Re the Dumyat/Menstrie sheep I don't know, but the Hielan coos were still around quite recently but further round on the north side, more towards Lossburn, near the little quarry. They also quite often hang about on the lovely "parallel path" on the west side. On the main Ochils, there have been regular farm coos on King's Seat in recent summers, right up on to the summit - always feels a bit odd to see them there.

I've met what may well be the same herd a couple of times on the upper part of Beinn Each.

Whats your grade Dave.  fide or otherwise. Just being nosey

Have never had a FIDE grade. Currently 1547 Chess Scotland. I spend my life floating about in the 1500s - feels like I'm the definition of middling. I'm Stirling B captain, which feels like my role in life. Around 25 years ago I got as high as 1670, but I'm far from sure I was any stronger then than now - grading deflation etc (pesky juniors to blame). Think I've been in the 1500s for 13 of the past 16 seasons.

What's yours? Lower than the actual Fischer's I guess...

Btw, Stirling chess club might be the only one in the UK with three Munroists - including one who has been round twice and has also done Alpine stuff eg the Matterhorn.

Could well have been - they seem to like that back glen. Best/biggest hill fox I've seen was also in those parts: had a spell a couple of autumns ago seeing four hill foxes within ten weeks, and the last of these was on an Each/Stuc traverse from Braeleny. Had come along the lovely Meall na Caora ridge and on a knoll just before Beinn Each summit there was a very fine big dark-brown fox, a proper veteran. We stood about ten yards apart looking at each other for a few seconds, then he (pretty sure it was a he - was big) trotted off down the steep eastern slope.

Youre right.The great and deranged bobby is my chess hero. And like you hes about 1000 points better than me     ;even now.  For me its been a gradual decline  over the last decade. Have you tried  lichess online . its a very good interface .  neil.

That's still a solid enough grade, though. I seem to be slightly better at allegro - similar grade although have been generally a bit higher and I seem better at taking scalps in that format - eg by some miracle I beat the league's strongest player, graded a giddy 2222, at allegro last season - reckon I would have almost zero chance against him in regular stuff. Had to have a proper sit down afterwards, anyway.

Funnily enough yes, just recently. I was unusual among regular players in that I'd never played a single game of online chess until the virus happened, but needs must and we've been running some club/league stuff on Lichess. Agree it's nice - good smooth interface etc - although for me it's nowhere a patch on the real thing. Keeps the brain cogs whirring, though.

Anyway, back to the Menstrie hillside fire, I've had another look from the bathroom window - the light's better now - but still can't really see much. Will have an afternoon road walk out by Manor Powis to Blairlogie and will report back - should be able to see reasonably well from there. They'll be keen to have it properly extinguished as there's quite a stiff easterly blowing and it's impressively dry.

PS - A thought: which climbers are most like the great chess players in style? I'm a walker not a climber so don't really know, but Joe Brown's tidy understated precision might have been like Karpov, whereas some power-up-it person (Messner?) could be Kasparov. A Fischer/Capablanca climber would be one who made it look very simple and elegant and anyone-could-do-that-ish. A Carlsen climber would manage E10 but take all day over it by a fiddly route.

Thanks. Haven't been up King's Seat for a couple of years so I've never seen the coos. Must confess to being a bit wary of regular farm coos whereas Highland coos look fierce but tend to be docile.

I probably go up Kingseat 20 or 30 times s year. The coos come and go!

Ah, I am confusing matters by replying to Rigid Raider's post about the fire at Widdop. That one is near to me and was allegedly started by a dropped cigarette. I don't know how the one in the Ochils started. 

They've always been very not-bothered looking when I've seen them up there - perhaps the effort of getting up above 2000ft makes them disinclined to trot after people. Mind you, either last July or the one before they were a factor in the Maddy Moss race. The marshals realised that the coos had wandered across on to the Helen's Muir shoulder, ie the start of the main downhill stretch, and there were worries that having 150 runners rattling through them might lead to problems. I think some last-minute adjustment was made the course (easier that than trying to shift 20-odd coos).

Re the Menstrie fire, the Facebookers are saying kids on bikes started it, but goodness knows.

I first saw it from Larbert, I cycle from Bo'ness, so I guess I would have been there between 8.30 and 9. I took a photo of it from Cowie, which would have been around 9.15. It was looking fairly big then.

Yeah, I suggested a run up there to my husband at the end of winter. There were some random paths marked on maps which I fancied trying to find. I had sensible leggings on (it was winter!!) and a bag with warm layer and head torch. My husband just wore shorts and carried nothing with him. He was somewhat grumpy at the scratched legs, slow progress and rather exploratory feel of the outing with dusk approaching!! That'll teach him to carry stuff!! (No, it probably won't. Sigh!)

In the end I didn't get along close enough to have a look today - couldn't quite face plodding an hour east into quite a strong wind. Went up Abbey Craig again and had a look from a couple of the east-facing viewpoints, but the lower shoulder of Dumyat gets in the way from there. There are now some close-up pics on the public-access local Facebook page however, and it does seem to be some of the young mixed trees that took a hit:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/715385905236355/
The court of Facebook appears to have largely decided it was young people to blame - "feral youth" etc.

It's the Kilpatricks this evening. Big plume of smoke spreading down the clyde estuary. I can't see the base of it from here, but probably somewhere up towards Cochno.