Rhind Hill, Glenrothes - 5th January 2020

I can't remember now why I chose a short walk for today; perhaps the forecast was not good. At any rate, I decided to venture somewhere new, as that is always exciting. I looked at climbing East Lomond from Glenrothes because I've fancied doing that since I arrived in the Kingdom of Fife, but that was a walk for a nicer day. Today I would bag a trig whilst not driving or walking too far.

I parked at Pitcairn car park in Glenrothes, which was new for me for a start and dipped into NO2703 where the slope of Coul Reservoir descends into woodland.

Slopes of Coul Reservoir. NO2703

Coul Reservoir was an obvious subject for the next gridsquare, although I was disappointed not to get closer to it and that I could not see any birdlife on it.

Coul Reservoir.NO2603

At first I was following what looked like a popular path through Hairyhole Plantation, but soon I was out more in the wilds. The weather certainly was not favourable for photographs, but as long as it wasn't chucking down with rain, I would persevere.

There are three Conland Farms, East, Mid and West, only one of which is still farmed - West conland. The others lie in ruins, making attractive subjects for photographs.

East Conland Farm. NO2604

It looked like there was a path to East Conland, although I did not want it today, and beyond to either the A92 or the A912, but, looking at the map, I cannot see a path from either of those main roads, which is a shame.

Mid Conland Farm. NO2604

Even my photographs of lichens did not turn out well today. It was just too wet.

Lichen adornments near the Conlands.

I was accompanied today by the irritating sound of motors and I couldn't work out where the noise was coming from. It's very unsettling when you're walking to have  the constant sound of an invisible motor. I made my way a little cautiously through the coniferous plantation, stopping to have a hot drink from my flask and to photograph the lichen and then reached the northernmost point of the walk and turned westward towards the battlefield. What was the battlefield I wondered. On checking the Fife Place-Name Data Website, however, I was to be disappointed. It has nothing to do with a battle, but was thought to be a good place for fattening up cows:

‘A rich field good for fattening cattle’ (Sc baittle adj. ‘rich, fattening for cattle’ CSD). Now woodland, it was the name of a field when the name was collected by the OS in the mid-nineteenth century, one of the sources given being an ‘Estate Map’. The OS Name Book notes cautiously ‘The name would lead to the conclusion that a battle was fought here in the early ages from its situation near the East Lomond. Be that as it may, tradition as well as history seems unable to authenticate the origin of the name’ (29, 49).

It was a bit of a battle for me though, as the path suddenly disappeared and I made my own path through Battlefield till I was in view of West Conland.

West Conland. NO2504

I was also in view of the origin of the motor sound - some middle-aged men on trail bikes were tearing up and down the fields.

I was looking for a navigable way up to Rhind Hill, and was running out of options. I joined  a road which dipped into the next gridsquare, but did not want to end up at Pitkevy; I was just going to have to 'go for it'.

Road to Pitkevy. NO2403

I strode off across a gate and over a barbed wire fence at the top of the hill into more forestry and found my way up to the trigpoint where there were also some totem poles and carvings. The view was marred by the weather, as were my few photographs, but I'd bagged another Fife trig and a few more gridsquares. From here I made my way back to the car park and was glad to get dry again.

Rhind Hill trigpoint. NO2503

Number of new gridsquares: 6
Number of miles walked: 4.5
Number of trigs bagged: 1
Walk worth repeating: No, unless continuing to East Lomond.
Highlights: Hmmm, were there any?