The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Footsteps through the foothills
Myreton Hill, Menstrie, Clackmannanshire
Myreton Hill is one of the smaller peaks in the Ochils, a shapely outlier in the foothills of the range and an excellent taster for walkers yet to discover this popular upland area.
It should not, however, be underestimated for the ascent, while relatively short, is strenuous, a track scaling the steep southern escarpment and continuing over grassy slopes, a slender trail skirting the periphery of a new plantation completing the climb to the viewpoint summit.
Setting off from the Hillfoots village of Menstrie and looping up through a series of tight hairpin bends, the conspicuous gravel road was originally constructed to serve calcite mines but is now mainly used by the local farmer, forestry workers and, of course, walkers.
It gains height quickly, pausing briefly at a rocky protuberance where the first of the day’s vistas over the valley of the River Forth are reason enough to stop for a breather. Across Menstrie Glen, rugged Dumyat governs the view west.
Turning north, the track contours above the glen, weaving up and over the western flank of Myreton Hill to enter one of the largest commercial forests to be planted in Scotland in the last 25 years. The scale of the endeavour is not immediately obvious, although a couple of information boards encountered along the way and the appearance of broadleaf saplings staked out across the hillside offer a clue to the changing face of the landscape ahead.
Stretching north from Menstrie to Sheriff Muir and covering over 580 hectares of former upland pasture, Jerah Woodland’s 1.3 million trees were sown in 2015. While two-thirds of the plantation comprises conifers – mainly spruce – there are clusters of native deciduous trees, too.
I stayed with the track as far as a gate in the high deer fence beyond which the bulk of the fledgling forest lies and here I branched right, a grassy path rising alongside the fence on to Myreton Hill.
The unmarked summit sits back from the escarpment and it is worth venturing south to a wall that crests the plunging slope for the best views not only of the valley below but also of the peaks that flank Myreton Hill.
The most straightforward way home from this elevated spot is to retrace the outward route to Menstrie but, keen to explore more of this corner of the Ochils, I returned to the line of the fence and followed it east, negotiating a couple of steep wee gullies before dropping into Balquharn Glen.
Tucked away in the cleft of the hillside, a tiny reservoir perches above a narrow, wooded ravine through which waterfalls tumble. Sadly, gorse has encroached upon the mapped path, but a higher-level trail running south from the pool alongside a fence offers tempting glimpses into the leafy gorge.
With an industrial site and flat agricultural fields beckoning below, I picked up a path running west along the lower fringes of the slope towards The Myretoun where the trail continues to the right of a post at the end of a fence before crossing a trickle of a stream.
A thicket of gorse ahead threatened to derail my progress, frustratingly close to the end, but, by passing below the spiky bushes to cross a simple wooden gate beyond, I found a better path and completed my footsteps through the foothills unscathed.
ROUTE
1. Cross A91, go up Park Road, turn right along Ochil Road then go left on track, ascending through gate to second gate.
2. Go through gate, swing left and ascend track for 2km to high metal gate.
3. Turn right and ascend path by deer fence to summit.
4. Descend east by deer fence then ascend slope between fence and wall.
5. Bear right, following wall down through gully and up to fence. Cross fence and bear right on grassy track running south-east, alongside fence.
6. Reaching a pair of gates, turn left and descend steeply by fence to reservoir. Go right and follow path by fence south.
7. Cross stile then cross Lethen Burn and continue south by fence to metal sign. Bear right and descend grassy track. 8. Turn right and follow path west. 9. Pass above The Myretoun, cross stream, skirt left below gorse to wooden gate and continue by plantation fence then good path to point 2.