East Lomond Hill (424m - 1391 ft), Falkland, Fife
The Lomond Hills
The Devil's Burdens (side story)
A window of strategic opportunity
Steps to a successful outcome
On the top
Return trip - a steep bit, and a road
The Lomond Hills are the most dramatic feature of the landscape as you drive from Edinburgh north along the M90 towards Perth. There they stand, rising up on the far side of Loch Leven as you approach Kinross. In the winter and early spring the peaks are often picked out by snow, accentuating their modest height. At any other time of year they still look impressive, rising up steeply from the surrounding pastures and fields of barley and turnips.
Several towns and villages lie close to the slopes, the largest being the new town of Glenrothes to the south-east. Closer still, Scotlandwell and Kinnesswood are on the lower slopes of Bishop Hill (1500 ft, 460m), and Falkland is similarly adjacent to the northern slopes of East Lomond Hill (424m).
It may be the lowest in altitude, but East Lomond matches the other two in terms of its steepness. Indeed, the volcanic rocks mean that all three of these summits require a steep climb, unless you approach Bishop Hill across the gradually rising rough ground on its eastern side. If you do so in mist, make sure to stop when you get to the top (if you can find it) to avoid stumbling over the cliffs on the western side!
These challenging hills provide the venue for one of Scotland's most demanding relay races - the Devil's Burdens. Named after the strange gravelly deposits on the southern slopes of West Lomond, which are marked as "Devil's Burdens" on the OS Map, this involves four legs, starting from and eventually finishing up back at Falkland. The second leg, from Scotlandwell straight up Bishop Hill, is regarded as the toughest, and it's one of my small achievements to have run this with a colleague from Dundee Roadrunners in the late 1990s. The event is held in February, so it can sometimes involve scrambling up through slush and snow, but when I ran it all we had to content with was the wind - but what a wind! The two tougher hill stages have to be run in pairs for safety reasons, and I was running with Grant. We had to find a little piece of paper when we reached the summit, to stamp it with a distinctive marker hanging off the summit cairn. It was all we could do for one of us to hold the paper in two hands, whilst the other applied the stamp! Then we had to be very careful to return it to a secure pocket otherwise it would have disappeared over Loch Leven!
The other challenge, I have to say, apart from the simple but strenuous effort of climbing Bishop Hill then West Lomond, was the descent down the north face of West Lomond. It was tricky to find the gap in the cliffs where a descent was possible, and even then it was a ridiculously steep slope. Nevertheless, those who were more adept hillrunners than me were able to rattle down whilst I took my time, carefully negotiating the rough ground and loose stones. I must have lost a good couple of minutes before starting to run once again towards the bottom, across a field to the cars at the end of the lane and the runners waiting for the handover. They would run the final stretch back to Falkland, along a low-level route.
Some of my running colleagues still remind me that when it had been my turn to start running from the changeover in the woods above Scotlandwell, I was still down in the car at the layby, explaining the gear change to Denise who was due to drive round to Falkland!
I have to confess I haven't volunteered to run the relay event since then. It's a good feeling to have done it once.
A window of strategic opportunity
It was the day after midsummer's day, and I was in Glenrothes for an afternoon training session with colleagues from across Scotland. All very interesting - what is "strategy" and why do we need it? Obviously, it's about setting objectives for ourselves, and that afternoon my objective was to fit in a hill run on my way home. I'd planned ahead, as all good strategists should, and taken some maps covering possible routes between Glenrothes and Dundee. And I'd decided on my strategic priority - East Lomond, from Falkland, if the weather was good enough.
The squally showers had abated by the time I left Glenrothes at 5 p.m., and after communicating my strategy to Maggie back home, I took the turning onto the A912 for Falkland. It's only 2.5 miles (4 km) from the A92 trunk road running from Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes north to Dundee. Halfway to Falkland, a sign points up a narrow road to the left, for East Lomond Hill. This is the easy way which I didn't take - the road leads to the transmitters and a car park on Purin Hill, on the eastern shoulder of East Lomond, at 340m, leaving only the final steep bit to climb! No, I wanted to climb the hill, not the top bit of the hill.
So I drove on into Falkland, took the left fork along a narrow street where a sign indicated "parking 450m" and continued into the centre of the old town. There was a right turn, then another, into the car park next to a hall and public toilets. It was still cloudy, but with some breaks in the cloud suggesting that there could be some sunny spells. At least I should get a view!
After a quick change I set off, back out of the car park to the street I'd turned down, going back up it towards the hill. But this led to a T-junction and a guy sitting on a wall said the way up the hill was in the next street (turning right, then left). This led up past a plastic bag factory on the left, and there was an opening where a track continued ahead into the trees. A couple of women sitting on a bench confirmed that this was the way up, even though a small sign indicated it was a private road.
Not much further ahead I could see a brown sign, and when I got there it was pointing to the path up the Lomond Hills. Now the hard work started, as I passed a concrete water tank on the right. There was a series of flights of steps and occasional slightly less steep inclines, climbing steadily up the hillside through tall conifers. My slow run turned to something less than a running motion, but I was still climbing steadily, and a few shafts of sunlight broke through the trees as I approached the gap at the top of the treeline. There were a couple of very long flights of steps here, reminding me of the climbs up stone steps in Qingcheng Shan a year ago. This was a serious climb!
Finally I reached the edge of the woods, where a large stone marked a turn of the path to the right. Looking into the sunlight, I could see it stretching up across the open hillside towards the conical top of East Lomond (see photo). A couple of small trees (larch, I think) were beside the path a little further up, and I snatched a snap looking back before continuing up the track.
Soon the view began to open up over the trees to the Fife plain beyond, and the rooftops of Falkland. With a decent sized gap in the clouds there were a couple more good photos to be had, zooming in on the village and making it appear much closer than it really was. The pale green fields stretched out in the distance, divided by a few lines of darker green trees.
On I went, trying to maintain some sort of slow running rhythm up the slope. It was a good track, easy under foot, and a joy to climb with that view opening out on the right. Then the incline changed sharply, turning upwards at the start of the final climb. Footsteps were cut into the grassy slope and I changed gear to a walk, pushing my hands down on my knees to help the thigh muscles. Two girls, students maybe, came down towards me and warned that it was windy on top. There was a fresh breeze already, and sure enough when I saw the summit indicator appear ahead of me I also felt the wind pick up suddenly. But it certainly wasn't anything like that February day when Grant and I tackled the Devil's Burdens.
I was able to take my time, enjoy the view, and wait for the sun to break through. It didn't, at least not on the top of East Lomond, but patches of sunlight moved across the landscape below, illuminating villages and fields. There was the hamlet of Newton of Falkland and Freuchie beyond. The sun glinted off Largo Bay in the distance. On the other side of the hilltop I could see the distinctive bridge tower in the middle of Glenrothes. Away to the north, beyond the line of hills, were the taller buildings of Dundee. I couldn't make out the new wind turbines at Michelin, but they'd be there somewhere. Closer at hand was Auchtermuchty, the Lang Toon, with gently sloping hills behind.
Over to the west, West Lomond rose abruptly, the highest of the group, and to the left was the back of Bishop Hill, looking quite tame. In between lay Ballo Reservoir and a couple of smaller reservoirs.
Return trip - a steep bit, a track, and a road
After some time I decided it wasn't worth waiting for the clouds to disappear and headed off down the west side of the hill. This would give me a circular route. Just like the way I'd come up, this was very steep, with a path cut into the grass, zig-zagging down towards a flock of sheep enjoying an evening graze. They grudgingly moved out of the way as I tumbled downhill towards them, making the most of that feeling of lightness without the inhibiting prospect of falling onto jagged rocks below.
The steep bit gave way to a good track down an easier slope leading down to join a vehicle track coming around the south side of the summit hill. It led in a straight line west, three-quarters of a mile further to bend down to the car park where a minor road ran up between East and West Lomond.
Just after the tracks met, another track led off to the left. I should have had the map handy to show that it continued across to the right, providing an off-road route back to Falkland, but unfortunately this lies on the cusp between OS Landranger 59 (St Andrews) and 58 (Perth & Kinross), and I only had the St Andrews bit. So it's worth looking out for this "crossroads", and the track leading to the right across the hillside and down through the woods, if you want to avoid the walk down the road back to Falkland.
But it wasn't a bad way to go. I ran down the long straight vehicle track, past a family out for a walk with a couple of small dogs, and found a short stretch of path down the grass to avoid the steep, winding downward bit to the road and carpark. But it still took me to the road. After taking off a shoe to remove a stone, I continued down the road, through a mixture of open country and woodland. Up to the right, the summit of East Lomond began to look quite dramatic, mountainous even. Then there were signs on stiles by the roadside indicating that landowners were happy for walkers to wander through the woods. It seemed there was plenty of scope around here for woodland wandering.
One marvelous thing I noticed was the sound of birdsong, brightening up the evening atmosphere.
The woods were thicker and more mixed as I came closer to Falkland village, and a couple of tracks led off to left then right. Then the village buildings appeared, and I was struck by the style of the architecture. These were genuine old houses, and Falkland was a bit like Culross which I'd visited a month earlier, but less colourful! Maybe it was more authentic. Past houses and pubs, a park and a church, and then the twin turrets of Falkland Palace itself, rather grey without any brightness from the sun. I took a photo without expecting it to be much good and continued along the main street, looking out for a wynd to the right to take me back to the car park. I didn't spot one (maybe I missed it) and had to run all the way to the turning I had originally taken with the "450m" sign to the car park. Back along the narrow street to the car park, where I didn't hang around long before setting off back to Dundee.
The hill circuit took 45 minutes of actual running / walking, plus quite a few minutes taking photos and enjoying the view. If you're having a more leisurely walk, it would be worth allowing about two and a half hours, maybe three on a fine sunny day. And a bit less if you can find the off-road route of descent.
Story by Andrew Llanwarne - June 2006.
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