Mediterranean Soup in the Ochils

The top of the trees signalled that Autumn had arrived. It was a bright and sunny day with a cool breeze blowing when Mountain Soup Dog (MSD) and myself decided to stretch the legs in the Ochil Hills. The target was the top of Innerdouny Hill, one of the higher hills in the eastern edge of the Ochils at 497 meters high. We started at the Littlerig car park off the B934 and the walking was straight forward as the Forestry Commission, that was, had conveniently created a road almost all the way to the top of the hill. The breeze increased as we walked higher up the hill and the views increased as we passed recently felled and replanted areas of trees. A pair of buzzards and a kestrel kept us company for a short distance but soon soared away on the stiffening breeze. The farm next door to our walk, Earnieside, was planted with trees about 4 years ago. It was a working farm before this and it is a shame to think that there will be no livestock either human or animal walking that farm again as it is turned over to trees. The same is happening to the fields in front of the Littlerigg cottage, near the carpark we started out. The land, bought by a coal miner's pension fund and turned over to forestry, effectively rendering the land useless for anything other than trees.

The walk continued up to near the summit of Innerdouny where the road stops and you have to go across country a little ways along an indistinct track. As you approach the summit trig point a bank obscures the view to the East but as you get closer to the trig point the bank reduces in size revealing a wonderful view over Loch Leven, down over Edinburgh and down the Forth to the Bass Rock.

The trig point reached it was time to decant the soup of the day. The glut of red peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse had inspired the Soup Dragon to produce, can you guess, Tomato and Pepper soup. The breeze was now a cold wind at the top, the soup was hot, both temperature wise and from the chilli flakes that had been added. The soup was good for a change but I do not think it would stand up to anything other than a summer day or early Autumn walk, there was not not enough body to it and rib stickability was only at 2 out of 10. With the soup and MSD's biscuit finished, it was time to head home. Retracing our steps we headed back down the forestry track to the car park. A great walk that is easily done in the worst of weathers, so if you need to get out when the high tops are off limits, it is well worth the effort.