Starting at Overtoun House, with the weather closing in, 6 brave walkers headed up towards the LangCrags, an imposing clifflike structure shrouded in cloud. “Path closed” said the sign “due to rebuilding of the path” The diversion looked rather long, so the sign was ignored and we pressed on up. Here we encountered the first hazard – knee deep mud – and the first of the very difficult passages was carefully, if not elegantly, overcome. No way back now, going up through that quagmire was just about possible, but going down – no way!! So, onwards and upwards, rain getting heavier and no shelter anywhere as we reached the edge of the Crags, all soaked and well muddied. However, the worst was still ahead of us. The path along the Crags was at times muddy and slippery, and at times non-existent. After numerous checks of the O.S. map we pressed on and on and on. At last we came to the end of the Crags and we could see the road, but to get there we would have to turn away and walk a fair distance. However, we have a John McFadyen. He spotted electricity pylons in the valley stretching out towards Overtoun House and convinced us to cut straight across the fields. We thought we had encountered mud before, but that was just a tester for what lay ahead. As we descended, the water underfoot increased, and the places to safely step reduced. It took two of us to pull Robin’s leg out of the mud. By this time we were all soaked and had mud up beyond our knees, but the next hazard awaited us. While John skipped ahead and climbed over a wall topped with barbed wire, we looked for a safer crossing. We found the gate, but it was chained and it too had barbed wire on top. We all finally got over, only to find the next field was as muddy, if not worse than the last. At least now we could see a farm road and we made a bee-line for it. Once there, it was a simple walk to the Overtoun road and back to the cars.
“Mud, mud, glorious mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the blood ——– there we can wallow in glorious mud!!”
One of our walkers tried that, (by accident) and he quite clearly stated that it was anything but glorious!
See Photos Here: