Coiliochbhar Hill & Lord Arthur's Hill

Coiliochbhar Hill

This is the last day of school before the Christmas holidays and I wanted to try and fit in two 5 (with winter bonus) point summits. My spreadsheet timetable suggested there wasn't quite enough time to fit in both, but I knew I could jog down the hills to save time and I didn't typically use all the 45 minutes I allocated to being on the radio. First up was Coiliochbhar. There's the route I took from the west and also another from the south. My route follows a land rover track much of the way up until you get to a big gate. This is where the estate owner is trying to encourage pheasants for shooting, and makes you take a detour around it. The path around isn't very well developed, so a bit of heather bashing at times.

You turn off the track and head up to the summit on the final ascent.

At the top, there's a cairn to your left and a fence line that leads into some trees. After a look at the cairn, I got the HT out and tried 2m. It was nice to get the WhatsApp group on 2m as I walked towards the trees. It was only three so I had to setup on HF, but that was fine. I setup in the trees, offering shelter from the wind but also making for easy mast support, and setup for 40m.

I had a summit to summit with a German ham, and a nice run on 40m. It did start to rain, so I packed up and headed down. On the way I met a game keeper, who asked if I could avoid visiting outside of Feb-Aug due to the pheasants. I guess I'll leave it until Feburary before I come back again - and perhaps take the southern route too to avoid the pheasant breeding area. It was a short 10 minute drive up to the main road ready for the next one!

Lord Arthur's Hill

The second hill of today, which is just across the River Don from the first. I was taking the route up from Littlewood house, parking in a layby on the road by the Don. I didn't like walking along the road so I cut through the trees to join the road up to the big house. It was a bit wet and probably only saved 2 minutes, so perhaps not worthwhile!

You walk past the house and then past various outbuildings until you join a land rover track up the hill. At this point I could hear a lot of shooting going on across the other side of the estate. I was slightly concerned that I would be stopped and told to go back but it seemed I was heading in the opposite direction and should be fine. Once I got past the trees and and heading up the hill I was well away from it all. You never know with shoots going on what to expect, and generally should stay away, but there were no signs or barriers. Often when going to the big hills, the places put up barriers or tell you to stick to the paths. Probably, as this was a smaller estate, and most likely don't have very much walker traffic, don't bother with that. By the time I got past the trees the shooting had stopped and there was a lot of car activity as I guess they were heading back for lunch.

The path continues up the hill and you can see the trig and summit cairn. The trig is a little exposed, so after having a look at it and trying 2m, I went over to the cairn. This is a substantial one, which you can hide in, although it seems to trap cold air and felt chilly and damp inside, so I setup on the leeward side of the cairn out of the wind. I jammed the mast into the rocks and setup the vertical for 20m. After 10 minutes or so the mast moved and started to fall, so I sat with my back against it to hold it up. 20m was very lively, with strong signals into Wales and England and good into Europe. I even had a east coast US come back as 55.

I packed up and headed back down to the car. I was home an hour ahead of my schedule, which was good to then have a cup of tea before collecting everyone from school for Christmas holidays! 🎅