Category: Times and Seasons
A year with much city hopping around Ireland, Switzerland and elsewhere
3rd November 2025 While you can plan as much as you like, a year never turns out quite as you hope. For me, that has been the story of 2025. A hoped for trip to Canada could not happen, necessitating a booking cancellation. The need to get more freelance work in a tough market simply weighed on everything else. Having addressed that need, it is only now that I can begin to look ahead again, even though a busy work life takes from that a bit.
This also got in the way of wilderness wandering, which meant my getaways involved cities most of the time, even if adjacent countryside also saw my footfall there. Also, booking a place to stay forces you to get going more than dangling the prospect of a day trip before you in circumstances like what I have experienced this year. That more likely made my excursions urban than they otherwise might have been.
Cork Residencies
January began in Cork, Ireland’s second city because of my spending Christmas there in somewhere that I have as an Irish base. My search for freelance work had begun without my realising the arduous road ahead of me. Otherwise, it was time to haul myself outside around such places as Blarney and Kinsale when a certain torpor could prevail otherwise. Before I left for the UK in the middle of January, a property matter was set in place that would close later in the year.
April would see me return, first for a weekend visit, searching for items that I needed to send to someone else and recovering after another discussion about new work came to nothing. The recovery was helpful, while the search remained fruitless in the interval before I returned for an Easter residency that allowed me to visit Cobh and Kinsale again, among other things. Then, my time was spent away from other city landmarks like its English Market, the north side’s Shandon area, University College Cork, Mardyke or Fitzgerald’s Park. Other things were on my mind.
A funeral was the cause of my returning at the end of July. Apart from saying goodbye to an elderly relative, things were otherwise upbeat thanks to my commencing a new contract and getting out in the sunshine for some pleasant walks around by Blackrock Castle and Cobh on consecutive evenings; this is an area that is much influenced by its harbour and estuary. However, it felt too short a rendezvous, ensuring that a return is in mind as soon as a space comes up for such a venture.
Swiss Getaways
May brought a near miss with getting work organised and that left me feeling morose. Having felt on the fringes for too long, a conference trip to Geneva came not before time, even if it may have scuppered that earlier opportunity. These just in time searches are very fragile things, as I was to discover in June, albeit without any real consequences that time aide from feeling saddened at having to choose something else.
Sunlit evenings in Geneva ensured that I became sated with what the city offered, along with some complementary weekend sampling along Via Jacobi from Coppet back to Geneva. Landmarks familiar from a stay in September 2015 like Jet d’Eau, the banks of the Rhône and Lake Geneva were again frequented, while the cobbled streets of the old town climb to the Cathédrale St-Pierre offered new perspectives. Later that week, a certain amount of repetition aroused a need for novelty that propelled me to Bern for a glorious evening of strolling that did me a lot of good as I traipsed its loop of the River Aare, another first since September 2015.
Other prospects like Zurich and Lucerne appealed during my time in Geneva, until I saw the travel times were longer than I fancied. They offered a platform for a bank holiday getaway before which things began to look up for me a little. Lucerne was where I spent the better day of the trip, leaving Zurich to be explored in mixed weather. That limited photographic activity, yet it did not stop me embarking on a return sailing on Zurichsee that got me as far as Rapperswil, where I spent a good deal of time strolling around there and Pfäffikon under seemingly improving skies.
Since Zurich left an itch to scratch, a return ensued as May ended and June began. Hot sunshine was the enduring weather challenge this time around, even if it did little to stop me strolling along the shores of Zurichsee after following the banks of the Limmat or even along the banks of the River Rhine in Basel with that striking proximity to France and Germany.
Additional evening ambling around Zurich after returning from the latter led me into that city's nearby woods. There, I found an abundance of quietude that was healing, a refuge from the pervading uncertainty in my life. It was much needed and would have reached deeper into my psyche if my work life had been going better. It was quite a counterpoint to all activity around each city's Münster.
Passage through Paris was an element in all this journeying too, albeit far more briefly than during my travels in 2024. The first time was as part of a train journey conveying me all the way from Geneva to Macclesfield, while the second would have been the Zurich equivalent except for its expense. Then, it was Paris Charles de Gaul airport that was my exit point from continental Europe, a much quicker journey, albeit not one that was without its occasions for relaxation either.
British Trials, Solace and Celebration
While the Irish and Swiss segments of this piece have a certain chronology to them, even with Irish trips bookending the Swiss ones, the British portion does a spot of time hopping around each of them. First, there was the January return to the UK, after which I attended to numerous other matters that lay outstanding, possibly affecting my search for new freelancing work.
When meetings with a potential client came to nothing, I decided to break things up with weekend trips to Edinburgh and London. These mixed up revisiting old haunts with seeing new places while I rebooted my search for work. It was going to be out in the sunshine rather than being downbeat at home. My work strategy was getting a shake up too, which set the scene for coming months. Success would take time to come, meaning that there would be another trip to London early in June to attend a conference before everything came together.
Yet Another Scottish Incursion
When it did, there was cause to celebrate, albeit quietly. Before commencing a new contract, I headed north to Inverness, ticking off one last item from my excursion list for my time between contracts. It was in my head for the autumn of 2024 and might have happened if I could lure myself away from Ireland for longer during that September.
The ideas were rural in the main: Fionn Bheinn near Achnacarry, the Great Glen Way between Drumnadrochit and Inverness and the South Loch Ness Trail from Foyers or Dores back to Inverness. In the end, I opted for the first two, partly because of having better public transport options.
Even so, there was an evening spent in the highland city itself, pottering around the Ness Islands and passing Inverness Castle. On the trail back from Drumnadrochit, I briefly encountered the Caledonian Canal, though I did not spend as much time along its towpaths as on a previous visit as 2023 transitioned into 2024.
Eastern Quests
Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire drew me away from home in July at a time when going east meant gaining cooler weather. This again was a mix of urban and rural, with much traipsing by the orienting River Wensum as well as a visit to Whitlingham Country Park. The medieval sights were surveyed too, especially around its cathedral close and its quiet green space within the city. There was time to traipse between Brandon and Thetford, shadowing the Little Ouse and passing through The Brecks under ever clouding skies. Those dented my brief visit to Ely and denied me photographic satisfaction there, ensuring a reprise two months later.
Though Ely was my target, I stayed in Cambridge because of its better accommodation options. A short train journey was all it took for me to see Ely's cathedral on a sunnier day, its unusual lantern tower drew a share of my attention before I pottered out of the city while skies broke over my head. Some rural ambling shadowing the Great Ouse showed me just how much of a landmark those cathedral towers make when viewed from the level, drained ground around the city. A return to its heart sated my photographic desires before another stroll by the river took me back to the train station under again clouding skies. Time had been called on my visit without causing any umbrage in my mind.
There was time to revisit Cambridge, too, to see and photograph different sights before I left for home. Advancing cloud cover again spurred me on to the train station after a sunny morning of ambling around the Backs, among other places. Different places were open compared with a previous encounter from years before. The River Cam was busy with punts and I left them to their way. Pembroke College saw me tarrying a while before I continued on a journey that was ending a sequence of summer jaunts, mainly urban but at times rural too.
A Southwestern Incursion
There was some time hopping above too: the two eastern excursions encapsulated a first trip to Devon and Cornwall. Again, cities pervaded with time spent around Exeter and Plymouth. Penzance became the Cornwall terminus for my rambling, allowing me to see the county's scenery from a passing train. While Exeter's cathedral and its surroundings clearly were a draw, they did not keep me away from the Riverside Valley Park, bounded both by the River Exe and the Exeter Canal. Exmouth was another location that lure, causing me to wander the coast a little too much for my own comfort given the advancing end of the hours of daylight. Nevertheless, this dalliance with the South West Coast Path did not result in ruin either, and Penzance became another, though my previous adventuring had tamed designs on an out and back trot to St. Michael's Mount. Thus, I made it home without any misstep.
Looking Ahead and Looking Back
There are upcoming business trips to Germany ahead of me, so the city hopping is not over for this year. Mainz is to be the location for a client meeting, with Frankfurt's airport proving essential for convenient travel. Because of the nature of the trip and the time of year, exploring will be at a premium, though. This also would be my first-ever overnight stay in Germany, only for the second likely to soon follow it: a conference trip to Hamburg. There, my time will be more my own, so more may come of it, though uncertainty pervades those possibilities.
A return to Cork for a longer spell is in my mind too, even if one cannot hope for too much when the hours of darkness are longer; an Easter stay would be better on that score. Beyond that, another conference could draw me to Italy for the first time. The venue is Milan in a time when hours of daylight are more amenable to personal city explorations. Since this is quite a time away yet, plans are not at all firm at this stage.
On reflection, there was a lot of temporal toing and froing in the above, unlike any rivers that flowed in only one direction. That was the sacrifice caused by focussing on locations to provide a thread holding together the whole account. Returning to the hydrological theme, it may have made the account tidal in places.
Another theme was what eventually became a successful search for freelance work, one whose busyness perhaps keeps me away from gallivanting as much the technological novelties that are coming my way. Reading is happening in parallel and something may stick there too, even if it feels far too premature to be considering summer holidaying plans. Last year's hubris does sit so well now.
Between the rush and the ramble: Swiss cities, Scottish hills and life’s rhythms
28th June 2025 Much has happened since I last posted something on here. After an extended and frustrating period, I am embarking on a freelance assignment with a new client. This came unexpectedly while I was pursing a search for permanent employment. It also turns out that things may be improving on the freelance market, given what I am starting to see elsewhere. Those other opportunities can go to others; when you choose one for yourself, you are implicitly rejecting all everything and everyone else, as a Capuchin priest preached on marriage on a Sunday morning near the end of last year. Sometimes, wisdom can be portable from one context to another.
From Geneva's Via Jacobi to Zurich's Hidden Woodlands
Bookending the above frenzy were trips away from home, first to a conference and then for leisure. The former took me to Geneva, where I got to explore the place in parallel. A Saturday arrival allowed for a Sunday saunter from Coppet back to Geneva that followed the Via Jacobi for much of the way, albeit with some deviations south of Versoix and near Geneva's Botanic Gardens. After getting sated by other strolling around the city, I embarked on an evening visit to Bern on the Friday before I returned to the UK, going by rail all the way home for the sake of added variety.
Zurich also got two visits. The first saw me go to Lucerne on arrival to make the best of the better day of the weekend with some lakeside strolling before venturing into a shady woodland with some ascent involved as I turned back towards the city centre again. A boat trip around Zurichsee made a lot of the mixed weather that came my way the next day, especially during an amble from Rapperswil to nearby Pfäffikon under breaking skies before returning by train. Some city strolling around Zurich followed the passing of a rain shower to round off the trip ahead of a return flight the next day.
The lack of sunny weather around Zurich drew me back later, even if temperatures were higher than what suits me. After following up a work opportunity, I caught up with the place on a sunny if sweltering evening to make some better photos. The next day, I went to Basel to potter through its Altstadt on a circuit taking in the banks of the River Rhine. That was completed in sufficient time to allow more wandering around Zurich after attending to a matter. More photos were made before my rambling among extensive woodland adjoining the city. That had me passing the city's zoo while remarking at the peace that surrounded me in the late evening, a counterpoint to what else was happening in my life.
An Ascent of Fionn Bheinn and a Section of the Great Glen Way
The action that resulted in the new freelance contract happened after all this and to celebrate the success, I made use of a trip idea that was thwarted by a previous frenzy of similar activity. Thus, I went north to Inverness when some sunny weather was on offer. After a late arrival caused by a tardy start, I went on a day trip to Achnasheen to make an ascent of Fionn Bheinn and take whatever views that gained me. An octogenarian was going the same way, but I decided to pass him and hike my own hike in the hope that the gradient would cause him to opt for a short stroll.
The route has a reputation for being boggy, and even a year with a lot of dry weather did not mean my avoiding soggy ground. That made the going more challenging on the initial stage of the ascent before gradients slackened for a while. It was only near the top that I met with better ground. By then, the views really opened out around me, as they had been doing while I gained height. Heat haze curtailed photographic hopes, albeit without taking from any scenic delights. For my descent, I went down by Sàil an Tuim Bhàin and Achnasheen Plantation to return to Achnasheen where I would have a lengthy wait for my train.
It was around five minutes before that arrived that my elderly counterpart arrived after reaching the top, further irking my conscience about having passed him on the way, even if I did need my own quiet time. The American was talkative, and I grabbed a step for getting him onto the train from the low platform, watching that he was OK after his extraordinary exertions. He seemingly ventured further up the carriage, apparently meeting some acquaintances. That was where our encounter ended.
Though myself wearied by my own actions around Fionn Bheinn, I stuck with my plan to follow the Great Glen Way from Drumnadrochit back to Inverness. The day started cloudy, and I contented myself with that as I departed from Drumnadrochit. Nevertheless, cloud cover began to break as I climbed up from the A82. Until the late afternoon, sunshine was to come and go. Before that, I deviated around by Carn na Leitire and relished some quiet road walking in advance of venturing onto trails again.
Then, I got word of some property that I had lost without my realising it and arranged a meet up with the finders to get it back before leaving Inverness for home. The kindness of others never fails to surprise me, leaving me to wonder at my own helpfulness or my perceived lack of it. A friendly chat ensued with passing fellow walkers after those phone calls; they were local and shared with me some knowledge about drove roads before we parted. They also said about travel being downhill from where we were, and they were not at all wrong about that. Being back in Inverness at an appropriate hour meant that I could attend to yet another matter before resting a while in advance of some gentler river bank wandering on a balmy summer's evening. It attempted to belie the forecast of rain for the next day, a failed ruse if ever there was one.
On being reunited with my lost property, I caught the next train to Edinburgh. Travelling meant that I was indoors from any rain. Even a delay due to overrunning engineering works around Pitlochry failed to scupper my progress, despite it meaning that a later departure from Edinburgh was my lot. The mixture of satisfaction and being humbled by the actions of others brought no cause for complaint.
In Reflection
For me, these recent months have been a reminder that life rarely unfolds as we expect it; we never know enough to plan everything; that is an ongoing life lesson for me. Here are some prompts: a freelance opportunity that emerged after a long wait, the kindness of strangers who returned lost property and chance encounters on hill country paths. Then, you can get a contrast between the frenetic pace of a search for work and the measured rhythm of walking at the same time as a juxtaposition of paths trampled and life experienced: sometimes boggy and challenging underfoot, otherwise offering clearer paths and broader views. It all exhibits how mysterious we are and how life is likewise.
There has been much closure to complement all of this mix of parallels and contrasts, too. There may be the prospect of following the South Loch Ness Trail, but that can wait for a weekday when bus times work better for such a venture. Having considered possibilities while I was up north, I am decided on that awaiting another time. With so much satisfaction otherwise gained, there can be no cause for complaint. Other things matter now as life proceeds into a new chapter.
Frantic: When life’s vicissitudes collide with getting away for a long weekend
3rd May 2025 The past week has been hectic for me, hence the title. However, the result of my exertions was an offer for my freelance services that clashed with another opportunity that came to nothing. The offer was accepted despite warnings that it could be rescinded. The coming week will show whether that was a bluff or not.
All this was happening during the first real sign of heat that we experienced this year; the hot, sunny weather was a foretaste of summer. There were local strolls in the midst of the frenzy, a necessity for keeping my mind in order throughout all of it. My mind even turned to a Scottish incursion centred on Inverness that would have allowed a visit to Fionn Bheinn near Achnasheen as well as a stroll from Drumnadrochit back to Inverness along part of the Great Glen Way.
However, there was too much happening to allow the getaway to become a reality. A hotel booking was cancelled after learning that the weather was not as enticing as I might have desired during a sequence of simplification. Having the prospects for another time will do no harm, though. Ideas are not so plentiful in my head as I write these words, anyway.
Business is set to return me to Geneva for a conference, which will be handy for getting to see the place again. The initial motivation for all of this was making connections for securing freelance work as well as building up my knowledge. Some of that may be less pressing after the past week, though it will be good to get out among colleagues again. Wandering the city in pleasant sunshine will be a bonus too.
These are times when being a solopreneur can be isolating, especially when trying to source work in a challenging market. Thus, it is just as well that the wonders of nature at springtime offer much needed solace and consolation. While my wanderings may be curtailed this year, any such encounter only spurs desire for deeper incursions. There may be time for those later.
Quiet, but not quiet
15th April 2025 2025 has not been working out for me as I might have hoped. The return to freelancing is not going smoothly, and is weighing on my mind. Thus, I have not been able to make use of the interludes of sunny weather like I would have done last year or in preceding years.
A disappointment was enough to prompt weekend visits to Edinburgh and London that were worthwhile. Beyond that and fleeting visits to my place in Ireland, I have not summoned the energy to venture into the countryside as much as I did around the New Year period, when I even embarked on a day trip to Killarney before a spell of wintry weather confined many of us in Ireland. A preceding amble around Kinsale took me along muddying paths, yet granted the fresh air respite that I needed at the time. Blarney was another place that offered much on brief incursions.
A fit of January hubris had me booking a North American holiday that I have now cancelled. Though the deposit has been lost, that was not much anyway and used up points that I had been accumulating. The extravagant delights of being sojourned in Toronto can wait. If anything happens during the summer, it is more likely European, given all the ongoing upheaval. The need for marketing and education is luring me to Geneva for a week in any case.
A possible client engagement could have taken me to Lausanne for a site visit, only for their deciding to go about things another way. The market in freelance work is proving challenging. A preceding fear of getting bombarded, like I did nearly seven years ago, thankfully has come to nothing. Desolate recollections of how things went on the transition from university to work are haunting me now as I consider my options for the future.
Nevertheless, the Easter weekend is coming and may offer chances for wandering in some countryside. That depends on what weather we are given and my freeing up my mind for at least a while; lulls, once seen as respite, now feel like desertion. A time when one could plan further in advance is behind us for now.
From distant viewings to up-close encounters and incursions: autumnal traipsing in the Ochil Hills
12th January 2025 It was a series of weekend visits to Stirling that drew my eyes towards the Ochil Hills to the east of the city. My first recollection of that happenstance takes me make to February 2016, in a period when other life activities sapped energy for exploring the outdoors. Just finding a hotel for a night and wandering around the historic citadel was enough for me. There were other visits, like a photography inspired one in May 2019, part of a run of Scottish incursions that year. The pandemic confined me to local wanderings, yet the possibility of a Scottish one based in Stirling never left my head.
When Scottish hill country outings came to mind, the lures lay further north and further west. It was too easy to pass Stirling en route to elsewhere. Eventually, thoughts turned to using the place as a springboard for exploring less familiar parts. Overlooked though they might be by many, that meant the Ochil Hills; they inspired a first trip to Scotland late in August 2022. While heading up there, the idea of Ben Ledi also popped into my mind, dividing my loyalties in the process.
The Ben Ledi forays get described elsewhere, while this report collates those centring on the real inspiration for the August bank holiday weekend excursion. There was a return several weeks later in September, around the time of the Royal funeral for Queen Elizabeth. That was to attend to some loose ends from the first traverse when a soaking was my lot. Though there was an added consolation at the end of August before I headed south again, it took until November 2023 for some photographic closure to be reached.
A Tillicoultry Circuit That Got Me a Soaking
If the weather that I had enjoyed during the ascent of Helvellyn on the last Saturday of August 2022 had continued, there would have been no dilemma posed by my dreaming up an ascent of Ben Ledi to complement an incursion into the Ochil Hills. However, the run of Scottish weather did not make life that easy, even if it looked promising when I got to Stirling on the Sunday of the same weekend when I hiked up and down Helvellyn.
Based on the height of Ben Ledi, I decided to visit that on the bank holiday Monday when I had a guarantee of clear summits. The bank holiday was English and not Scottish, which made public transport work better for me around Stirling than it would have done around Macclesfield. The decision meant that I left the lower tops of the Ochil Hills for a day when summit visibility was not a foregone conclusion. There was a price to be paid for that.
There is an enduring memory of dark dreich mornings during this August sojourn. Even so, that must not have been the whole story, for I got some brightness to start my Ben Ledi foray and a brief incursion into the Ochil Hills in bright sunshine before my journey south. Two mornings would have brightened on that evidence.
The problem then was the morning of my first Ochil Hills traverse. However, the air remained drier at lower levels; the problem was when enough height was gained. There was another hitch: the initial plan had been to ascend Ben Cleuch from Tillicoultry and then proceed east from there. Though there was a warning about a collapsed section of path in Mill Glen, I decided to see if the difficulty could be surmounted. When I found that was not a possibility, I more or less retraced my steps to go west towards and through Ochil Hills Woodland Park. There would be no ascent of The Law, not that it bothered me that much.
From there, I went across Silver Glen to pick up the track leading past The Gowls and The Nebit. If I had wanted an escape route, the way to Alva was signed, but my mind was decided by then. In time, I left the main track to ascend Ben Ever and go into the clag that would soak me until the descent towards Dollar. While visibility was reduced, making use of navigational handrails like fences kept me from going astray. At least, I could not see anything of the wind turbines that were near at hand.
From Ben Ever, I made my way to the summit of Ben Cleuch, the highest top in the Ochil Hills. Given the restrictions on visibility, any descent to Tillicoultry via The Law would not appeal to me; it felt too risky to me in the circumstances. Avoiding that original planned ascent of The Law, found in a guidebook, might have made me use slopes that were less punishing, never a bad thing. In a similar vein, manageable undulations were my lot as I continued from Ben Ever to Ben Cleuch and then to Andrew Gannel Hill. The name of the latter may suggest that it was named after a real person, yet it is more likely a corruption of an earlier Gaelic name.
After Andrew Gannel Hill, the subsequent descent and ascent needed to reach King's Seat Hill was more noticeable, and peering along the glen leading back to Tillicoultry made me wonder what delights could be savoured if the weather so allowed. This could have been another escape route if I had wanted it too. With a certain determination, I crossed the last major summit of the day before beginning my descent to Dollar.
That dropped me out of the damp cloud to allow my gear to dry a little. The views were clearer too, though there remained a pervading general greyness. Now that I think of it, I had the hills to myself, which was more of a bonus than a consolation. Maybe there are times when dreich and off-putting weather has its upsides.
My descent route took me past Kames and the Banks of Dollar before crossing the top of Bank Hill to commence the final descent into Dollar Glen. The ruin of Castle Campbell lay below me as I continued downhill. Once on the floor of the glen, I may have tarried a while for some refreshments before continuing; lunching on the tops was out of the question. Students of the Dollar Academy, one of Scotland’s independent schools and an alma mater of Hamish Brown, well known for a first continuous self-powered round of Scotland's Munros, were out and about. That did nothing to stop me acquiring more refreshments, for my journey was not over yet.
Dollar had lost the regular bus service that it had before the pandemic, so I needed to reach Tillicoultry for the nearest stop with a regular service. This feels a bit odd since the southern side of the Ochil Hills is bedecked with places that are not far from each other. In any event, I made for the combined Devon Way and National Cycle Network route 767 that ran along the trackbed of a dismantled railway. Shadowing the River Devon, I shortened the journey to Tillicoultry while glimpsing as much as I could see of the nearby hills, among which I had spent much of the day. This last portion did not take that long to complete, so I could catch the bus to Stirling and dry out even more after my wetting.
Much Drier, Albeit with Limited Sunshine
The combination of a feeling of unfinished business and the instatement of an extra bank holiday due to a royal funeral, that of Queen Elizabeth, meant that I had a chance to go north again. After travelling on the Saturday of that weekend, Sunday was available for what became a walk from Alva to Dollar and Tillicoultry that diverted through the Ochil Hills. There may have been some breaks in the cloud, yet conditions remained largely overcast, not that it troubles me as I write these words.
From Alva, I made for Alva Glen before climbing out of there to approach Silver Glen. My route instead shadowed the glen as I reprised the way that I went a few weeks before. Passing The Gowls and The Nebit, I did not continue to Ben Ever, but instead kept going until the track petered out near Ben Buck. As I kept looking back, I marvelled at what lay behind me and wondered how the landscape would appear if the skies had been more cooperative.
Once on Ben Buck, I realised how close the wind turbines were. Though we have an ongoing climate crisis, these fixtures are controversial in any landscape, and the Ochil Hills are no different. Not being a fan of such industrialisation, they intruded on how I previsualise my preferred photographic results to be. Once something is in place though, we just have to bear with me, and I kept walking according to my plan.
An undulating course took me across Ben Cleuch and Andrew Gannel Hill. To the north of where I was wandering, I could glimpse sunlit hills, perhaps wishing for a swap or a bit more inclusion from those breaks in the cloud cover. It needed patience, but some magic began to happen when I was around King's Seat Hill. It started when I was still ascending after the hefty height loss on the way down off Andrew Gannel Hill. Would it deny me while I was labouring uphill?
Thankfully, it did not. In fact, it gave me time to be in position for the desired lighting and made me wait for it, too. Thus, I dawdled on a photographic vigil that yielded some passing success. When the show ended, I began to make for Dollar again. While the route was similar to that of weeks before, my mood differed after the light show I had been gifted. The day of the week allowed more to be around the town while I continued on my way to Tillicoultry, going the same way as before.
Consolations and Resolutions
This part of the account is going to hop and jump in time. The overarching connection is autumnal sunshine, though in different years and circumstances. It illustrates the strange ways in which closure can be reached. A certain sense of being underequipped is associated with this portion of the compendium of accounts.
Firstly, we head back to the last morning of the first trip at the end of August. Inadvertently, I left my Pentax DSLR on overnight and the battery was exhausted. Thus, I resorted to a Canon RP instead, even if that was not as well-endowed with battery capacity and also was not fully charged; some recharging was attempted when morning sunshine was noted. Thus, I headed to Alva while shod in Merrell trail shoes. They did the needful as I climbed out of Alva Glen on the way towards The Gowls, and sufficed for the descent too.
Numerous photos were made before the Canon's battery ailed, meaning that I needed to use my phone to capture what other delights were on offer. Time was at a premium, too, since I needed to check out of my hotel and travel south. Even so, I was not denied, as the above photo should show you; that was made with the Canon, too. The experience likely encouraged me to return to Stirling a few weeks later.
The same trail shoes, albeit older and showing their age a bit, facilitated another incursion into the Ochil Hills, this time in November. Having halted in Edinburgh a little that day before, mainly for seeing what I could do with eastward views from Corstorphine Hill. That night was spent in Stirling, though, and I had designs on gentler strolling the next day.
Before something more expansive happened, I had to visit Gowanhill in Stirling before sampling its delights. After that, I caught a bus thinking that I was going to Alva. However, I blundered and was on the bus to Alloa via Tullibody instead. It might have been my Irish accent, but the driver should have told me when I said Alva. Realising my mistake, I made do with starting from Alloa for Tillicoultry on a wonderful morning. This was no hardship and placed no restrictions on my rambling on a November day with shorter hours of daylight.
This time, the Devon Way and NCN 767 combination would get me to Tillicoultry from Alloa, expanding the extent of the route that I have followed over the course of time. Others were out and about, some walking dogs. Once beyond Alloa and nearing Tillicoultry, the Ochil Hills were laid out beside me, making me wonder if I could see Ben Cleuch. In short, they were showing nicely.
On making my way through Tillicoultry, I joined the Hillfoots Diamond Jubilee Way near Lady Ann's Wood. That showed me more of the hills while on the way to the place where I once had hoped to ascend The Law on that first damp traverse of these hills. Passing that, I followed a more direct way than before; the first visit had seen me traipse through the grounds of a disused quarry that I avoided on the November stroll. This was to be a far more civilised amble.
The Ochil Hills Woodland Park was the next landmark on my way. The trees were barer than on that August hike from more than two years before. The sun broke through too to make for a far more happy passage among the trees. While proceeding uphill took me towards Silver Glen again, there was much to relish.
Once beyond the woods, I found myself below The Gowls. When a lady rambler asked if I was going far, I gave a partial answer because I felt not a little underequipped for hill wandering. People are so friendly in these parts that I wonder if they know me without my knowing them. On my second time in Dollar, I found a lady giving me a broad smile from her car that set me wondering.
Once I began to follow the track in earnest, the human encounters declined to nothing, and I could savour the scenic delights in the wonderful afternoon sunshine. The experience showed me what was missing on that second time in the area. At the end of the track, I just turned back. It felt adventurous having even got that far; the top of Ben Buck may have been near, but I prefer to use boots for off track travel like that. Shadows were lengthening, too, reminding me that getting to Alva was pressing. Thus, I set to doing just that and retracing steps from before for that descent. The gradients made me wary until I got to Alva Glen, especially around The Gowls and even when nearing the glen itself. Confidence in one's footwear makes a big difference.
Once on Alva's main thoroughfare, I set to awaiting the next bus to Stirling, keenly aware that I might have been cutting things fine for the rail journey home, especially for getting beyond Stockport to Macclesfield; trains stop running earlier on a Sunday. There must have been no issue in the end because that surely would reside in my memory. The trail shoes would be partially retired after I noticed stitching giving way on one of them while on a trip to Limerick a few weeks later. Over the course of three years, they had acquitted themselves well enough to encourage me to get a new pair anyway.
Reflections
One thing that has not been mentioned in these accounts is what inspired me to go following the trails that I did. The short answer is that a Cicerone guidebook had its part to play. In some ways, I ended up assembling routes from portions of what it described while combining others. As ever, there is more to explore, even if that needs more commitment than using the local bus service 52 (it was service 51 that I inadvertently used in 2023). So much has been savoured so far that other designs can wait while other places get their time too.
