Farewell to An Socach

The name means The Sow and there a few hills with this name; this is the one west of Glenshee. They are all presumably long and rounded and reputed to be a bit, well, dull.

But I really like this one for the long airy walk along the wide ridge, two kilometres between the tops at each end. I like the broken stone surface, and the hares and ptarmigan that are usually up here.

Mrs P and I have climbed it a few times, sometimes by the shorter and harder route up from Glenshee Ski Centre, past Loch Vrotachan, down to the Baddoch Burn and up again on to An Socach. It's hard because you have to climb back up to the Loch to go home. The easier but longer way is along the burn from Baddoch, and that is what we did today.

This might be the last time, though. Neither of us are as sure footed as we were, Mrs P especially, and it is starting to feel too remote in the event of a tumble.