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Dumgoyne, once more.
I climbed this one on a total whim, and in the wee hours of the morning.
I couldn't sleep, so took Steve's car keys just short of 3am and drove
out through Bardowie to Strathblane. Listening to Immortal's Tyrants is
my main memory of driving through the twisted roads, although my whole
objective seemed rather abstract in the dark of night.
I parked at Glengoyne, where the parking remains awful - the old car
park has been rebuilt and is, for the meantime, off bounds. I parked in
the entrance to the distillery. Surely they wouldn't mind at this time
in the morning?
I started walking in the dim light, leaving the bright floodlights of
the distillery behind. I marched uphill impatiently, and keen on making
upward progress. For the most part, the path strikes directly up the
hill, but near the top the path levels out to a terrace contouring the
steep slope. In my opinion, this is where Dumgoyne really
comes into it's own. This is the part that I always love - the lights of
Glasgow burst into full view, you become established on the summit ridge
and the wind tends to blow a bit harder too. It's the first place that I
felt exposed - not in terms of height, but just in the sense of being
out alone on a mountain in the middle of the night, with the wind
rushing by and cities and towns brightly lit but sleeping.
The summit followed soon after, where I stood getting cold with the
camera mounted on the tripod. I had made a point of not using a torch on the climb up, but I
needed it to find things in my bag. I put the torch away and descended
by city and moonlight. I sometimes think to myself that I should do more
night walking. I can tell I don't do so much nowadays because when I do, it
still
reminds me of the night walks I did in 2009. They were the big ones -
Ciste Dhubh, Beinn a' Bheithir, Meall Ghaordaidh... All good fun, all
fondly remembered.
My car was still there when I returned - still in the way of the
entrance. I chatted to a guy working at the distillery for a few minutes
and then got on my way, parking up at home and crawling into bed...
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