[Mike]

These are just in from Maitland. I'll leave it to him to provide explanations and captions for the images -

[Maitland]

My apologies for the poor quality of the photographs.

The first one was me trying to compensate for the bright light, hence the arty fart photograph but it does give a wee bit of perspective.

The second photograph was taken from under 1000 feet. It is a photograph of the glen leading into Comrie. In the distance there are snow capped mountains but the camera unfortunately didn't pick this up.

The third photograph shows the path that I was walking. Having never been on this walk before I had assumed that at the top of this track was the top of the hill, I was wrong. It had taken me around 2 hours to reach this point and when I reached the top of this path realised that there was about another 2 hours further walking ahead of me but unfortunately I didn't have the time to do it again.

The final photograph was where I stopped to turn back. The hill I was walking is to the right out of shot but in front of you are more hills with snow covered mountain tops behind, again with this camera it is difficult to see.

All in all I walked around 13.8 miles (according to my daughters phone). I would think that the walk to the summit of the hill and back would be anything between 6 and 8 hours and about 22 miles. I will hopefully have the time next weekend (weather permitting) to get it done then. The walk was fine but after about 7 miles the walk became a little steeper and not being a regular hill walker I found it a little more difficult than I thought. According to the phones statistics I lost 2000 calories on this particular walk which was no bad thing.

I did take about 87 photographs but a lot of them were me trying out different settings on the camera. If anybody is interested in any more of the photographs I can certainly ask Mike to stick some more on but these will not really give you a good idea of the surrounding area, they are generally photographs (Black & White) of the odd tree here and there.

M...

[Maitland]

I meant to say before. This track runs directly from the village over the hills. My understanding is that it is an ancient drovers road that went from Braco to Comrie and Callander.

At the start of the track in our village there used to be (until a few months ago) a small grass bank that was slightly raised at the start of the track. From my understanding from an elderly gentleman who has been in the village all his life this small grass bank would be where a gentleman would stand and count the cattle, horses, etc and decide on a price for passage up this drovers road.

This small grass bank was recently levelled by the council to make an area where cars could park to recycle their rubbish, we mustn't let the local history stand in the way of global warming now must we !!

M...

[Mike]

Maitland said:

The second photograph was taken from under 1000 feet. It is a photograph of the glen leading into Comrie. In the distance there are snow capped mountains but the camera unfortunately didn't pick this up.

So would the Knaick run down through this glen? And would that be Ben Chonzie in the distance?

You mention the road running to Comrie and Callander. Does the road come from one, pass through Braco and go to the other?

OK, last question - Does the drover's road to Comrie approximate the B827, up through Langside?

The prosecution rests, your Honor.

[Maitland]

Mike Wrote:

Quote

So would the Knaick run down through this glen? And would that be Ben Chonzie in the distance?

Yes it is the Knaik that runs down through the Glen and yes I believe it is Ben Chonzie (Pronounced Ben Y Hone) from the Gaelic Mossy Hill I believe.

Where I stopped the walk, the hill in front of you is Ben Ledi but I would need to check the map to see what others were visible but I am quite sure one is Ben More but that general area is the trossachs.

Mike Wrote:

Quote

You mention the road running to Comrie and Callander. Does the road come from one, pass through Braco and go to the other

From my understanding all the tracks met but as their use has deteriorated over the years the paths have all but disappeared. Where I stopped the walk it looks as though the track ends on Multimap but I am sure you can still see the remnants of further track marks but won't know for sure until I get back up there at the weekend.

I intend to get up that wee bit early next Saturday or Sunday, pack some pieces and try and complete the walk up the hill and see if it goes any further on from there.

Mike Wrote:

Quote

OK, last question - Does the drover's road to Comrie approximate the B827, up through Langside?

Yes it does. When you look on Multimap you will see where it says Langside. Just up from there you will see a building and some ruins on the other side of the B827. This was roughly where this particular walk finished, South of the building on the Drovers Road. On Multimap at the end of the Drovers Road you can still see some faint tracks so I would suggest that the track goes further on.

M...

[Panache]

It must be wonderful to walk amongst such beautiful country.

Slainte

Jamie

[Mike]

Maitland said:

When you look on Multimap you will see where it says Langside. Just up from there you will see a building and some ruins on the other side of the B827.

For the life of me, I cannot get the aerial view to zoom in whilst looking at this area. I was going to see if I could sort your digs out, but I cannot zoom in there, either. The map view will zoom in, but not the aerial view.

[Maitland]

Late last night after watching a programme called Coast and swearing at the television (that is another story) I decided to have a wee look at some old maps of the area.

I found a map of Braco and the surrounding area from 1866. The map was more informative for my needs than the modern day maps.

Cromlix Hill my ultimate destination last weekend is not actually called Cromlix Hill but called Cromlet and is around 1328 feet above sea level. Where I stopped my walk the other day was very near to the summit of this hill, I was probably only about 200 yards from it. It is a flat expanse of land rather than the summit I was expecting hence I looked towards the next hill.

There is a trig point on this hill marking it's highest point and I intend to aim for that on Saturday or Sunday.

On the 1866 Map the Drovers Road does seem to stop at the point I reached but there appears to be some indication that it may have went on further and would possibly meet up with the B827 at Langside and then onto Comrie.

I can see no indication that this was a Drovers Road through to Callander but then when I first came to the village I was informed that this track was originally a Roman Road which I now know to me nonsense.

The main road into Braco from Greenloaning is certainly a Roman Road and was built around the same time as the Roman Camp. I may at some point over the coming days start a thread on this particular topic but will have to use photographs from the internet as you can only get a feel for the camp from the air.

M...

This post has been edited by Maitland: 07 January 2009 - 07:30 AM
Reason for edit: Typo