Lossburn Reservoir

Terrain:

Tracks and hill paths

Gear: Full hill walking kit

THE ruined farmhouse of Jerah, which lies on the northern side of Dumyat in the Ochil Hills, is a solitary spot, and there is something eerie and discomfiting about it. It is anybody’s guess whether this is connected with stories of the devil taking the shape of a shepherd known as Auld Donald, who is supposed to have lured folk to their deaths in the Crunie Burn gorge, adjacent to the house. Whatever, I do not like to linger there too long.

Despite its apparent promise, Dumyat is a bit of a disappointment to rock climbers. Its volcanic composition makes the rock loose and friable, and likely to pull away in your hand at the slightest provocation. But that did not stop one of Scotland’s oldest mountaineering groups - the Cobbler Club, founded in 1866 - from holding one of their first meetings there. Their aim was to climb the Cobbler - and "whatever worthy hill could be reached in the course of a Saturday expedition from Glasgow".

For centuries previously, Celtic tribes had links to the hills. The earliest forts on summits such as Dumyat, forming simple circular ramparts, date back to the Iron Age. A tenacious race, the Celts were present when the mighty Romans arrived in central Scotland around 70AD, and were still there when the invaders departed in the fourth century.

From the leisure centre in Menstrie, on the A91 between St Andrews and Stirling, walk north up School Lane, heading for a track zig-zagging up the shoulder of the hill ahead. To gain the track, look to the side of a cottage for a path with a stile at the end. The track was used as a pony trail when calcite was mined during the Napoleonic Wars.

Follow the zig-zags up on a good surface. After some distance, the track goes down into a dip and up again to within sight of the Jerah ruins. Make your way across the field system to Jerah, then west towards Lossburn Reservoir.

Cross the outlet below the reservoir dam using a small wooden bridge, and continue ahead uphill to an old drove road that loops around the eastern side of Dumyat, back towards Menstrie. To climb Dumyat, head straight across the track and follow the paths that lead up the hillside to emerge on the top, where an extensive view bursts on the eye across the Ochils escarpment and south towards the Forth. A trig pillar is complemented by a brazier used as part of a network across Scotland when fires are lit on notable occasions.

After drinking your fill of the panorama, follow a steep path down the eastern side of the hill to reach the drove road, and continue to the right. A stile is reached on the left. Cross this, and continue down through gorse bushes back to Menstrie, near the leisure centre.