Llendorin's nature blog

Well, today was an absolutely glorious day. The sun was shining, clear blue skies. I just had to get out, even if it did mean dragging myself away from my beloved moth trap!

So, i grabbed my mother (She needs the exercise!) and we went up to the Lomond Hills, in Fife. It’s an area I’m very familiar with, having been there several times since I was a child. I have some rather fond memories of running around on the hills, playing commandos or some such, while my parents picked blaeberries.

The route we took today is shown below, (You’ll probably have to zoom in to see it) and I’ll describe some of the features we saw along the way.

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We started at the Craigmead car park, where most trips to the Lomond Hills begin. It was pretty busy, with somewhere in the region of 30 cars parked there. Probably the busiest I have seen the place! It was pretty clear that people were taking advantage of the good weather. The view to West Lomond is shown below.

We immediately set off on the path towards West Lomond, and it wasn’t long before we saw the first idiots of the day. A group of 4. 1 adult male, 2 adult females and 1 child. Pretty normal grouping, you say. Nothing stupid about that, Grahame!

I’d agree, if it wasn’t for one factor… Now, correct me if I’m wrong here, but is it sensible, at any point, to be wearing HIGH HEELS when out in the hills! Ok, the forecast was lovely, the ground was solid, but you can be sure that if one of those two women tripped, and broke their ankle, it’d be up to a poor mug like me to help them. Don’t get me wrong here, I think it’s great that they’re out in the countryside, particularly when they’re with children, but seriously… nobody on the hills is likely to be scoping you out for a date, so appearances don’t matter that much. And if they are, trust me, the heels aint gonna help you!

Rant over… for now.

Autumn probably isn’t the most exciting time to be on the hills. There’s not an awful lot to see in terms of Wildlife, so most people are out walking for the sake of walking.

There is wildlife there, if you are willing to look for it, though. Although most of the flowers on the heather had gone, and it was predominantly a dull brown colour, there was still a few small patches of pink and purple about, if you were to look close enough.

The picture above is actually quite a good representation of how the moorland is managed. THe bare wood in the background is what remains of the burning that would have taken place last year, to encourage regeneration… and it’s pretty clear that the heather has been doing just that!

Also, on the way to West Lomond, there were several thistles about. No, they weren’t in their full purple flower, but I’m sure you’ll agree that the seed head that remains has a beauty all of its own.

When we got to the base of West Lomond itself, we chose to veer off and take a different route, rather than make the ascent of the hill itself. It seems my mother isn’t a big fan of climbing up hills. So, we veered to the left and used a small, minor path, barely wide enough for one person. I knew the path would take us down into the valley and past Harperleas Reservoir.

The descent down into the valley was a little tricky, as it was quite steep, but it wasn’t overly complex. Once down in the valley, and away from most people, things started to get interesting. We heard Red Grouse calling, along with Wrens and Robins. There was also signs of other life, in the form of droppings, most likely from Fox.

We then got to a part of the path where the terrain was a bit more tricky, and ‘lo and behold… there were the cyclists on their mountain bikes (Luckily they’d moved on before we got to them).

There are signs and advice on the car park for cyclists, along the lines of  ‘don’t cycle on the wet, boggy paths’. As you can guess, this advice is there for good reason. The path along here was like a quigmire, with bike tracks all the way through it. And to make it worse, because the bikers have pretty much destroyed the path, the walkers are now going around the edges of the path… causing more erosion and damaging more of the countryside.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve nothing against cyclists. It’s a pretty good way to enjoy the countryside, as long as it’s done responsibly. In this case, it was clearly irresponsible and was blatantly ignoring all the advice given to them (although, in their defence there are no signs in this area to advise against cycling in there). Interestingly enough, in all the times I’ve walked the Lomond Hills, this area seems to be the only part where i see bikers. I guess it’s due to the relatively level ground in the valley.

After we’d traversed the quagmire, we walked past the reservoir. Lots more bird song now, with the reservoir to our left and plantation woodland to our right. There was surprisingly little wildfowl on the reservoir, though, with all of 3 Mallard and 2 Grebes (which I couldn’t get close enough to confirm ID of).

However, looking down to Ballo Reservoir, it was a different story. I counted at least 200 geese, about 20 swans, approximately 200 Lapwing, a couple of Grey Heron and at least 200 ducks (way to far away to identify). I’m definitely planning on taking a closer look in the next couple of days to see what’s there.

Once we’d passed the reservoir, we moved onto Little Ballo Farm. This is where you can see plenty of effort has been made by the rangers of Fife Coast and Countryside Trust to alleviate any potential conflicts between the farmers and the walkers. Signs, like the one below have been erected to advise walkers on behaviour, etc.

Not surprisingly, almost immediately after seeing the warning signs, we bumped into a group of cows, who were happily staring at us from the other side of the fence

A rather good reminder that although the Lomond Hills is a Regional Park, where people are more or less free to roam, it is still working land. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that farmers have to make a living off the land. I wonder how many sheep they lose, or become lame due to irresponsible dog owners, or cyclists each year? Farming isn’t an easy life, and I guess farming in a popular walking area, only a few miles away from a large town (Glenrothes) has its own unique challenges.

The rest of the walk was relatively uneventful, walking on farmer’s tracks or at the side of the main road back to the car park. The main highlight was a single Painted Lady butterfly – still on the wing in Mid-October!

In totaly, the walk lasted approximately 3 hours, and was about 6 miles long. As I hope you can tell, there was plenty to see (and hear) along the way. It’s the closest thing we have to upland habitat in Fife, and it always has, and probably always will be one of my favourite places for walking in the Kingdom.