Pitlour Hill - 22/02/2019

I was starting my second walk from Auchtermuchty, heading west this time to the far north-west of the county - my destination: Pitlour Hill trigpoint.

I like the village of Auchtermuchty. It's one of the only places in Fife that I have seen the Dipper. I would like it more if it had toilets and a cafe; I discovered on this walk that it has neither.

I started my walk by paying a quick visit to the church; something I always like to do.

Auchtermuchty Parish Church. NO2311

I walked through the village and headed north-west into gridsquare NO2211. There was a reservoir marked on the map, which made a definite, if boring subject for this gridsquare's photograph.

Auchtermuchty Reservoir. NO2211

Just before Leckiebank a 'Private' sign and arrow directing walkers right, took me away from my original route. I never mind this as long as it doesn't mean missing out on a gridsquare. Looking at the map now, some months later, I seem to remember it meant missing out on one, but gaining another. My original route was going to take me up Demperston Hill in NO2112. There is still a track marked on the map leading up this hill, but I suspect it might be better to access this gridsquare from the west. I was nearly in it at the top of Pitlour Hill.

For now, I followed the footpath signs circumnavigating Leckiebank.

Leckiebank Farm Cottages. NO2212

I joined the road at Newton and briefly entered NO2213 at Pitmedden Forest.

Road at Pitmedden Forest. NO2213

I followed this yellow road to its end, pausing at Newhill to ask some passersby if they knew how I could get to Pitlour Hill. as the crow flies it's only about half a mile from here. They had no idea what I was talking about. Perhaps they weren't locals? I hoped not.

There was nothing particularly interesting to photograph along this road and I was glad to get off the road onto a forest track. 

Road to Newhill. NO2113

I was still veering from my original route, but was looking forward to seeing the loch marked on the map.

Dried up loch at Broom Hill. NO2013.

The loch was more or less dried up, however, so there was nothing to be seen here. Discouraged at the way the day and walk was turning out, I determined that I would reach that trigpoint and headed off up the hill across bog and sapling conifers. It was an unpleasant quarter of a mile or so until I reached Pitlour Wood and found much more interesting subjects to photograph in the many interesting trees up here.

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Trees and tree roots on Pitlour Hill. NO2012

I eventually reached the trigpoint, probably my least favourite Fife one so far.

Pitlour Hill trigpoint. NO2012

Looking at the map, I could see two potentially interesting features to look, out for on my descent to Pitlour Park. Brownie's Chair and a monument. I was also looking for somewhere to eat my lunch and thought I'd found the Brownie's Chair; in fact I thought I was sitting in it for lunch. It looked rather like a chair after all.

Outcrop near Brownie's Chair, NO2012

The only reason I know this is NOT Brownie's Chair is through subsequent research, which described Brownie's Chair as being a thatched cottage, one storey high and once occupied by one of Mr Skene (of Pitlour)'s gamekeepers. Allegedly the brownies used to sit on a tree trunk by the cottage. There is no sign now of this cottage although I did see some rubble by a herd of cows which was in the right location. No brownies though.

If I didn't see the Brownie's Chair, I did see some 'pretend' standing stones in the next gridsquare.

'Pretend' standing stones at Pitlour. NO2011

The search for the monument was in vain too. It was in the forest and I wasn't about to go wandering in search of something that might not be there. I'd done enough walking off piste today. I couldn't find out anything about this monument when I got home and tried to research it. Whilst the monument did not materialise (largely through lack of effort involved in looking for it), a pond did. This was not marked on the map unless you count three blue squiggles as representing a pond.

Pond near Pitlour Farm. NO2011

Some sheep posed beautifully for a photograph.

Sheep and West Lomond from Western Pitlour. NO2011

Western Pitlour turned out to be a ruin, one of my favourite things, and quite an extensive ruin at that.

Western Pitlour. NO2011

NO2011 was proving to be a very interesting square. Perhaps I should start a legerboard of interesting Fife gridsquares and, when I've done them all at the age of 150, decide which is the most interesting, a bit like Classic FM's Christmas Carol countdown at the moment. Hmmm, now there's a thought. On the 1856 map of this area, not only is the aforementioned monument depicted, but a summer house close by. Perhaps of more interest though, is a Roman fort, shown only by hashed lines at NO 2039 1161. Although the OS Place Names Book says it is called  'The Roman Camp' by local residents, it goes on to say there is no certainty of it being such. Whatever it was, I passed it by in oblivion!

For anyone interested in the Pitcairn of Pitlour family history, there is a detailed family history here. I was interested to read that two members of the Pitcairn (Pitcarne) family were fined for their presence at local conventicles in 1674. William Pitcairn and his brother Henry were fined twice in the same year for attending conventicles (field services) and for harbouring the minister, Rev John Welsh. At the time of the Covenanters, both attending conventicles and harbouring fugitives and 'wanted men' were crimes punishable by fines, forfeiture, imprisonment and, in some instances, by death.

William Pitcairn lived at Pitlour House. The present house was built in 1784.

Back of Pitlour House from the north. NO2011

My obsession with NO2011 was over. I had reached the road, must cross it and find another gridsquare. NO2010. It has not escaped my notice that these are years within my ken. I'm not going to make anymore of that than that simple sentence.

I was in for a pleasant surprise as I had thought it necessary to walk along the road into Strathmiglo here, but, in fact, there is a footpath leading south, signposted to the village. Brilliant.

Footpath by Barroway Burn. NO2010

The footpath runs parallel for a bit to the Barroway Burn before continuing on to emerge at the busy A912. I crossed the road and went straight into the village of Strathmiglo where a disused railway line now forms a decent footpath eastwards.

Disused railway line at Strathmiglo. NO2110

I continued walking this pleasant footpath through woodland, parallel to the noisy A912 until it emerged near its convergence with the A91. The A912 is a strange road as you keep thinking you're leaving it. I'm very familiar with this road, having driven it many times when I stayed for a while with my brother in Falkland. On my regular visits to see dad in Perth, this was the route I took. I was now seeing the same route on foot. I like that. Something about taking the same road slower and being able to say as you drive past at a later date, "That's the footpath I walked along when I did such and such a walk." It's all about befriending the land, acquainting  yourself with it. One day I will walk barefoot so that I am truly walking 'skin to skin'. Not in February however!

A familiar and helpful navigational junction at Strathmiglo. The A912 and the A91. NO2110.

My wintry woodland path had diminished in size and I chose a fallen tree to sit on to finish the last of my hot tea and whatever snack I had left.

Disused railway line at Strathmiglo. NO2110

I saw an overwintering Chiffchaff here, which cheered me somewhat, not that I particularly needed cheering. I had recovered from my earlier mood slump. That had all been due to not being able to find a path when I wanted one. Things since then had gone swimmingly. Naturally, this state of affairs was not to last. I had risked thinking I could walk the entire length of this disused railway into Auchtermuchty. Do not follow in my steps! The red lines on my Memory Map bear witness to my wandering footsteps. I eventually found a bridge, a good subject for a photograph of a gridsquare I would barely be in.

Railway bridge near Strathmiglo. NO2210

I had already photographed NO2211 at the start of the walk (Reservoir), so passed swiftly through this gridsquare following a straight track until the track disappeared. I snapped a photo of the burn and an attraxtive bridge, not realising I had already 'bagged' this gridsquare.

Bridge over Auchtermuchty Burn. NO2311

It took several attempts to find a navigable way back into the village of Auchtermuchty, but all was forgiven once I was back on harder ground, until, that is, I discovered there were neither toilets nor cafe in the village, so I made a hasty retreat home!

Number of miles walked: 9

Number of new gridsquares: 11

Number of trigpoints: 1

Number of features shown on map that did not materialise: 5 (including paths)

Number of features not shown on map that did materialise: 2

Walk worth repeating: No, but return to find Brownie's Chair, Roman Fort and Monument

Wormit to Balmerino - 19/02/2019

My brother was to accompany me on today's walk, which was revolving round another Fife trigpoint, these still being my main destination on any Fife wanders. I look at the map (scour would be a more appropriate word) and see which ones look the most accessible.

I decided the one west of Wormit looked pretty accessible whilst providing a scenic walk along part of the Fife Coastal Path. We parked in the village of Wormit and quickly realised we could have parked nearer the proper start of our walk. Never mind, this way we got to walk right underneath the Tay Rail Bridge, which I may have done on the north side before, but definitely not on the south side.

Tay Rail Bridge at Wormit with the pier remains of Bouch's bridge. NO3926

I had also never seen the Tay Rail Bridge memorial before. The Tay Rail Bridge had been designed by Victorian Railway Engineer, Thomas Bouch. At the time (1878) it was the longest bridge in the world (nearly 2 miles long). Queen Victoria travelled across the bridge and awarded Bouch a knighthood for his accomplishment.

Disaster struck on the night of 28th December 1879, just 18 months after its construction. In a violent storm of Gale Force 11 to 12 on the Beaufort Scale, the bridge collapsed and all 59 passengers and crew were drowned. Interestingly from the memorial, the oldest  victim was aged only 62 with the majority being under the age of 40 and several children being amongst those lost.

The Tay Bridge Disaster (source unknown but picture in public domain)

A Court of Inquiry decided that "the fall of the bridge was occasioned by the insufficiency of the cross bracing and its fastenings to sustain the force of the gale." Bouch was held chiefly to blame for the disaster and, as a result was removed from his current responsibility in designing the Forth Rail Bridge. He very sadly died within a year of the disaster and is buried in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.

To this day it is a sad legacy that Bouch is immortalised in the derogatory phrase 'to make a botch job' of something.

Tay Rail Bridge Disaster Memorial, Wormit - NO3925

We continued westwards along the Fife Coast Path to Peacehill Point, which was the point at which we needed to head inland and uphill to get to the trigpoint. This was quickly found, although it was the first of its kind that I had ever seen. The trigpoint has been incorporated into a memorial bench here. I can't remember to what or to whom the memorial had been erected,but it looked as though the work had recently been completed, or had even not yet quite been completed as the trigpoint was covered in sackcloth.

Peacehill trigpoint. NO3825

Beyond Jack's Hole (another interesting name), at Kilburns, we crossed a burn.

Burn and bridge at Kilburns. NO3725

Although the path runs right next to the coastline here, you only occasionally get glimpses of the sea through the woodland and I imagine it would be more difficult in summer when the trees are in leaf. We passed at least one shipwreck here, but could not get close enough for a good photo. On we wandered through naked woodland.

Fife Coast Path at Kirkton. NO3625

We went onto the beach for the next gridsquare to find Samson's Stone. We had already seen one Samson's stone near Crieff a couple of weeks before, so the thought occurred to me I had go round the country collecting Samson's Stones. I already had two! One thing at a time, Becky!

Samson's Stone and kayaker with Dundee in the distance. NO3525

Cottage near Balmerino. NO3525

At Balmerino, we passed the Old Mill.

The Old Mill, Balmerino. NO3524

There is an abbey at Balmerino, but it would not have been open in February and we still had a long way to go, so we did not take a diversion into the village, but continued on into 'Oak' wood.

Oak Wood? Near Balmerino. NO3424

Despite its name, the woodland was mostly pine and larch. I assume there used to be a plethora of Oak trees here. At some point  close to Birkhill House, the wood becomes Low Wood.

Low Wood near Birkhill, NO3423

Low Wood was more interesting than Oak Wood with some lovely old trees and lots of Snowdrops. I think we ate our lunch somewhere in these woods.

Huge Oak Tree, Low Wood. NO3323

Snowdrops in Low Wood. NO3323

Beech Tree in Low Wood. NO3323.

I would have liked to explore these woods more, but 1) we felt a little bit like we were on private land and 2) we were short of time. As usual, I found myself saying we'd have to return in another season to see the woods differently and explore a bit more.

For now, we had reached our westernmost point and were turning back. The walk back was along farm tracks and not as interesting. I took a photograph of a disused tip for NO3523, without  doubt the most boring photograph of the day.

Tip near Balmerino. NO3523

For some reason I had it in my head that there was a cafe at Balmerino and that we should therefore take a diversion into the village, but Tim had been to the village and knew better. He assured me there wasn't."We'll just have to finish our flasks in this attractive bus stop then," I reasoned. It certainly was an attractive bus stop between Bottomcraig and Balmerino, and a much more interesting subject for my gridsquare photo than the last one!

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." Mahatma Gandhi
Bus Stop near Balmerino. NO3624

The quote from Gandhi kind of sums up this blog really! I love finding these hidden gems, insignificant in themselves,but what a difference they make to a day. There is so much beauty to discover in the world, often in the little things that are so often overlooked. Mum was a big fan of little things and we owe our curiosity and appreciation of such to her. A bus stop in rural Fife - a little thing but it cheered us up and added some colour to our day.

There is more to be discovered at Naughton - for another day. I have done some research and discovered a coffin road near here, as well as an interesting murder story! But I think I will leave both to another day. I had a quick (very quick) look for St John's Well, marked on the map around here, but it was unfruitful, so I satisfied myself with a photo of an attractive cottage.

Cottage at Naughton. NO3724

We were nearing the walk's end, turning off now back to Peacehill Farm.

Approaching Peacehill. NO3824

Peacehill Farm. NO3825

From here, we descended back into Wormit and our starting point at the Tay Rail Bridge.

Tay Rail Bridge from Wormit Den. NO3925

Number of miles walked: 10.5

Number of new gridsquares: 10

Number of trigpoints: 1

Number of interesting bus stops: 1
Walk worth repeating: Yes

My fourth Fife trig - Northfield - 04/02/2019

I was due to meet a friend in Tayport this afternoon, which meant I had time for a short walk this glorious morning. I chose a spot near to Tayport with a trigpoint because, at this point, I had lowered my sights to just achieving all of Fife's trigpoints. I stupidly later decided that wasn't enough for me; I wanted to visit every single Fife gridsquare. That didn't matter today, however, because I was going to get some new squares today and one of them happened to have a trig in it.

It was more difficult than it looked on the map - it often is!

I parked at the big car park by the Tay Road Bridge, walked to the B946 and then almost immediately (and thankfully) turned right at Northfield. I went to enquire at the farm if it would be OK to walk on their land, but there was no answer so I set off through the gate up the hill.

It was a beautiful frosty morning and the views across the Tay were stunning. What was it like before these two great bridges spanned that mighty river? I allowed myself to think. When ferry boats plied these waters, ferrying passengers between the north and south banks. That is how the Covenanters travelled in 1685 when they were driven cruelly from Burntisland on their march to Dunnottar Castle. They spent the night at Tayport (then Ferryport on Tay) because the tide was too low for them to be taken across to presumably Broughty Ferry.

Tay Road Bridge from Northfield - NO4228

It was easy enough to find the trigpoint.

Northfield trigpoint looking across ;the Tay to Dundee. NO4228

It was not so easy to find my way into the neighbouring gridsquare. NO4328. The telecommunications mast was obvious enough, but so was the security surrounding it.I wandered for a bit looking for an obvious way in as I wanted to join the track leading south from the mast. Eventually I clambered across a broken fence and fought my way through woodland to the road. The mast made an unattractive feature for this gridsquare.

Northfield Mast. NO4328

The aim of my quest is to take a photograph of a single identifiable feature within every gridsquare in Fife. The telecommunications mast and trigpoint are good examples of identifiable features. They are marked specifically on the map and can be recognised within a geographical context from a photograph. Sometimes it is not quite so easy. On Islay there were many virtually featureless tracts of lands, so that when I entered a gridsquare I sometimes had to just take a photo of bog. Other times I waded through bog searching for a water source that apparently happened to be within a gridsquare. Contour lines and a spring (if I was lucky), that's all some gridsquares offered.

I sensed it would not be as difficult in Fife; it had not been as difficult in Dorset either, but then I never got anywhere near the completion stage. I still had hundreds of gridsquares to do before I left. Never mind, I would try to do as many Fife ones as I could and revel in the fact that many offered a particular feature.

So I snapped my boring mast and quickly headed south into more interesting territory. This road ended at Laverock Law, where I continued south to Causewayhead.

Road liable to subsidence. Laverock Law. NO4328

I joined a 'proper' road soon after Causewayhead, but I was struggling to see anything to take a photograph of. Sometimes I forget just to take landscape photographs anyway; I get so caught up in my obsession to take gridsquare photos. My last chance was going to be Chesterhill, marked specifically on the map, but I couldn't see sight nor sign of Chesterhill, so plumped for a non-specific and boring photograph of the woodland there.

Chesterhill. NO4327

I did remember to take a photograph of the general view on this occasion though. I was looking across to Tentsmuir, a place special to me if only because it was where I had my last walk ever with my mum.

Tentsmuir from Chesterhill. NO4327

Passing Washer Willy's I was curious about the name. I would have to look that up afterwards. I did and found some interesting snippets. Firstly, the name:

Apparently in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, Willy and his sister Jessie Philps (pronounced Phipps) lived here and took in washing from Newport. There is a pond to the east of their cottage which is still known locally as 'Jessie Phipp's Dam'. In fact local knowledge  (Mr William Berry, Tayfield House) states that their house used to be at Knowehead, a little to the south of the present Washer Willy's marked on modern maps. The 1854 and 1895 OS maps support this information. (Information from Fife Place Names Data and map from NLS Maps)

Another interesting snippet of information about Washer Willy's was from the Courier and Advertiser (28 April 2016) which records that during the Second World War only one bomb fell near Newport and that was on 19th November 1940 as a result of someone using the outside toilet with an oil lamp to light the way. The light was spotted and a bomb was dropped, causing considerable damage to the property and to nearby Chesterhill House and Lodge (the one I couldn't find), where windows were blown out. Apparently the bomb crater can still be seen today, but I'm thinking that if Washer Willy's used to be situated a bit south of where it is today, that's the area to explore for anyone going in search of this bomb crater. (Information from Press Reader)

After all that and I don't even have a photograph of Washer Willy's. There's always something to go back for I find.

For the next square I took a photograph of Scotscraig Burn, which must have been near where Willy and Jessie did their washing.

Scotscraig Burn. NO4427

Shortly after this I turned left into Scotscraig Estate, little realising that this too had some historical interest relating to the Covenanters. This was the private estate of Archbishop Sharp, mentioned in my last post. I didn't know this at the time, so didn't look, to see the date carved on the gateposts - 16 on one gatepost and 80 on the other. It could be, however, that I did not come across these gateposts as I did not pass the house itself - another reason to return to the area. Short(ish) of time, I stuck to the regular footpath and contented myself with a photograph of some old steadings.

Scotscraig Steading. NO4428

It was definitely  place to return to, perhaps in a different season to enjoy the spring woodlands. Perhaps there would be bluebells?

I joined the B946 and walked westwards. I had taken my picnic for a walk, not having seen anywhere suitable to sit for lunch. I decided I would drive back to the picnic benches overlooking the Tay Estuary. This was just within the next gridsquare, a gridsquare with more water in it than land.

Back at the picnic site I walked to the far end of the car park so I was just with in the relevant gridsquare and took a photograph.

Tay Estuary and picnic site. NO4329

Number of new gridsquares: 6

Number of trigpoints: 1

Number of miles walked: 4.2
Walk worth repeating: No, but return to Scotscraig and Washer Willy's to find bomb crater