I'm a dedicated walker. This frequently includes modest hills but I'm not a climber or mountaineer. I do intend to tackle a Munro at some point but all in good time. Besides, an arbitrarily set threshold of 3000 feet doesn't make these peaks superior or guarantee a superb view. Living in West Fife, I have the Ochils almost on my doorstep. Although most widely associated with the Wee County (Clackmannanshire), the rag-end of the range does extend into Fife, finally tapering out at Norman's Law near Luthrie. Three modest mounds stand within a short drive of my house. I started by scaling Saline Hill.
The village of Saline has a population of just over 1000 and lies close to the boundaries with the counties of Kinross and Clackmannan. I had already tackled this climb a few years previously with the walking group from my old place of work. Around half a dozen people would turn up for these expeditions with the inevitable call-off here and there. What I could never quite get my head around were the folk who regularly said they would go but never did. I mean, why bother? Anyway, I had a vague recollection of the route up the hill and also that it was largely pathless sheep grazing terrain. I made good progress and picked a route where I only had to negotiate one barbed wire fence. With a bit of practice you can get over these obstacles no problem. This year has been a great one for butterflies and I snapped some lovely photos on the hillside. I uploaded them to Facebook and Instagram during a pause and marvelled at how we now take this instant communication for granted and that 4G is available pretty much anywhere - in Central Scotland at least.
I reached the summit and enjoyed the views across the surrounding landscape. Saline Hill is like a two-humped camel and has a second, slightly lower peak. I thought I might as well do both. As I stood in the dip between the two high points, I noticed a couple of kestrels hovering above. They were rising from the hilltop and no doubt scanning the area for potential prey. I love the way they seem to be painted in the sky and I managed to take a few nice photos. Of course they were gone by the time I reached the summit. I lounged in the long grass and enjoyed the solitude that is usually the case on the more obscure hills. I was looking down upon the village of Steelend and remembered that the walking group had taken this route back down. I decided to go for this option to make it a circular walk. I couldn't find a suitable point to cross the burn in order to access the village and instead skirted the pastureland back towards the farm road that I'd taken on the ascent. This provided a bonus in the form of Killernie Castle, a 16th century tower house now in a completely ruinous state but an interesting find nonetheless.
Back in Saline, I munched on a mince bridie from the local shop. I remember following a Facebook page a couple of years ago about new management taking over the premises (I think the previous owner had retired) and their plans to turn the place into a gourmet hot and cold food outlet, alongside a number of other fancy services. It all sounded rather too good to be true and I guess it was as the business is now run by an Asian family as a traditional village store and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. A sign on the main street informed me the mobile post office visits twice a week. The logical location for this service would of course be the shop. Whether the traders don't want to run it or whether the post office has downgraded its presence, I have no idea. My mother was the postmistress in Lochgelly for many years and it was a successful operation. It must be more challenging nowadays as so many transactions are completed online. The next climb on my list was Knock Hill - a name known around Scotland for car and motorbike racing. The track sits at the foot of the titular hump and has been a popular venue for decades. The easy way up would be to park near the circuit and use the access road that serves the transmitter masts on the summit. That sounded rather boring and I worked out an alternative approach on the map.
Returning to Saline, I walked a mile north of the village then cut along a farm track behind Saline Hill. Once again there were many colourful butterflies around and I was able to photograph them at close quarters. Knock Hill hove into view and I switched to the trackbed of an old mineral railway that was closed back in the 1930s and is now a core path. I wanted to scramble up the green slopes of the hill and left the railway to approach the looming mass. I picked out a faint sheep track which led upwards and I made rapid progress. I'm quite happy to admit I'm strictly a fair-weather hill walker as I see no point in getting soaked if you can avoid it. There had been a recent dry spell and I was able to walk through and sit down on the long grass and heather without getting wet. I slogged my way to the summit and had a bird's-eye view of a race meeting in progress. The final piece in the jigsaw was a blast up Hill of Beath, adjacent to the M90. It's possible to park on a disused motorway flyover and from there take an old concrete road formerly used by lorries transporting coal from an opencast mine. You leave this track before it crosses the M90 again and there is a dichotomic stretch where you walk through a scenic grassy valley, screened from the thundering traffic a mere stone's throw away.
The initial ascent soon gives way to an easy walk to the summit although there was sheep muck everywhere. All good organic matter I suppose. I had done this small hill twice before. The first time with a colleague and then with Nicole on our first climb together. The peak offers a wonderful view of the Forth Bridge although it was a hazy day and my photographic efforts were hampered. Turning round, I saw the sculpted contours of the old opencast site, now fully accessible to the public as part of the recently-opened Fife Pilgrim Way. Rotating further, I was treated to the sight of Saline Hill and Knock Hill standing proudly side by side. To the east, I could look down upon Hill of Beath Hawthorn's football ground. The Haws are one of the few Fife teams ever to have won the Scottish Junior Cup - a tournament that attracts over 150 entries from the various regional leagues around the country. It is truly one of the world's great footballing contests and I was there that day in 1990 when the Haws lifted the trophy by defeating Lesmahagow. My dad drove us down to Kilmarnock to see the match at Rugby Park. This was just before the old-style terraced grounds began to be redeveloped into modern all-seater stadia. I'm glad to have caught both eras of being a football fan. Speaking of our national sport, I was due to be meeting my mate Paul at the Cowdenbeath game so it was time to descend by the reverse route and head through to Central Park - a venue that is most definitely stuck in the past. We won 3-1, yay!
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