Weather/Conditions: A beautiful way to end the year. Cold and windy up high, but the sunlight and snowy mountains were amazing...
Distance/Ascent/Time: 4.9km / 180m / 2h 05m
Accompanying: Dad

This was a special walk, first of all because it was my 100th mountain climbed in 2009 and secondly because it was just a great day out with dad. The weather was fantastic and sine Auchineden Hill is one of those places that I've been visiting since I can remember, I couldn't have finished the year in a better place.

I'd walked fairly intensely by the end of December, partly due to the volume of my free time and also because I wanted to achieve a few goals. Climbing 100 hills or mountains in 2009 was one of these, which I slipped in at the last moment on the 31st December.

We walked up above the car park then onto the moorland at the summit. The snow was deep, but plenty of tracks had been cut on this popular hill. Views were wonderful, the sun was out and snow lap thick and pristine on the mountains.

Having visited the trig point, we walked down to The Whangie and then back around to the car. The last sunlight turned the Campsie Fells pink and red, as was the case with the hills surrounding Loch Lomond. Then on the way back, a full moon at twilight rose above the Campsies. It had been a wonderful day and yielded much nice photography.

Panoramas

Loch Lomond


Campsie Fells Sunset