Tinto Trot

This morning I heading off for a bit of a trot on Tinto Hill near Biggar. Tinto is a charmer, an outlier of the Southern Uplands standing alone at a height of 711m (2,333ft), on a clear day the views are magnificent. Today Tinto stands tall in the low clouds and snowfall.

I'm on the "tourist route", the most popular walking route, starting at the car park area behind the tea room on the A73. Tinto is somewhere high up there in the mist and cloud. There is a very large cairn on top of Tinto, and a local tradition is to carry a stone up Tinto and leave it on the cairn. I have my stone here, just a small one today.

Tinto Hill Tea Room

The beginning, the summit is somewhere high up there

I collect a small stone for the summit cairn

I meet a few groups of walkers descending in the earlier sections of ascent. The reports of visibility (poor) and drifting (deep) have me wondering whether or not to continue. I decide to continue. I've been here a few times now and it's a simple path to follow.

The path seems easy enough to follow here ...

... and here at least the walkers have left footprints ...

... but soon visibility is down to a few feet.

The snow is getting deep and visibility is poor, but hey ho, at least the walkers have made a path through the snow for me to follow.

Snow getting deeper ...

... but the walkers have left a path for me here.

I can follow this little channel through the snow, and I'm ascending, so this is good. However, with so little visibility I don't have a clear mental picture of how close I am to the summit. Then a fence appears in the mist to my right, and soon another to my left, and I know I'm on the last short steep haul to the summit. The large summit cairn comes into sight. The thing on top is a viewfinder. The cairn is surrounded by small shelters, excellent places for a picnic, except perhaps not today! The stiles and fences are covered in ice and snow. I come through some deeper drifting around the back of the cairn heading toward the trig point. I need to head back down now, but I have on thing left to do up here beforehand. It's that stone I've been carrying, I need to place it atop the cairn. I also take a quick look at the viewfinder, although it's not much use at the moment.

Summit cairn with viewfinder plinth

Stone shelters around the cairn

Ice and snow covered stile and fences

Stepping through deeper drifting around the cairn ...

... heading toward the trig point.

I must place my stone on top of the cairn.

The viewfinder on top of the cairn

Time to descend now, and perhaps a visit to the warmth of the tea room. I've counted the number of groups of walkers I've met on descent ... one greater than the number of cars in the car park as I started. It is very probable that I am up here alone at this time. There is a smaller cairn on the way down, if I remember correct this is about the half way mark, I can just find it in the snow now, I didn't see it at all on the way up. The visibility and conditions continue to "impress", but hey ho, I'm happy, it's a lot easier and faster now that I'm descending. In what feels like just a couple of minutes as I descend the clouds are becoming thinner and visibility is improving. I can make out the distinctive ring shapes of the iron age fort below. I meet a solo walker ascending, brief conversation of conditions higher up, and a photograph.

Small cairn about half way

Visibility and conditions underfoot continue to impress ...

... but before long as I descend the cloud is thinner

I can make out the ring shape of the iron age fort below

Descending toward the fort

I detour off the path at the fort to run around the rings and take some pictures of sheep. Returning to the car park I find a mountain biker getting ready to head off up the hill. He has a specialist bike!

Sheep at the fort ...

... more sheep at the fort

Specialist mountain bike at the car park.

That was an interesting excursion today. I've gone 7.7km and climbed just under 500m, in somewhat difficult conditions. I've been on the go for just under 1:25, it's been tough, and I feel great. I'll be here again some clear day to capture the panorama. Now, just time for a nice hot mug of tea.

Enjoy!