To Ormiston Hill


Sometimes you don’t need to climb very high to find a good viewpoint and the top of Ormiston Hill above Newburgh is a perfect example. It’s only 744 feet high, but from the top we can look out over the Silvery Tay to the Carse of Gowrie, the Sidlaws and the Grampians in a wide sweep that stretches all the way from Perth to Dundee. Little wonder our ancestors chose this spot to build a fort.

It may be a small hill, but this morning it posed one or two challenges. As I neared the top, I spotted the head of a cow pop over the horizon a few hundred yards away – then there were two. Then five. Within seconds there were about thirty cows and young calves (never a good combination) heading my way! Having watched Crocodile Dundee, though, I knew exactly what to do – point two fingers at their eyes and hum. Or was that for buffalo?

Plan B was to loup the fence into the next field and seemed a much safer idea. The final climb to the large stone cairn placed another obstacle in my way – finding a way through the maze of jaggy whin bushes. Certainly not recommended for anyone wearing shorts!

Needless-to-say, the view over Newburgh and the Tay made it all worthwhile and, oddly enough, on the way back down the cattle had disappeared.

 

Willie Shand

To Ormiston Hill

Sometimes you don’t need to climb very high to find a good viewpoint and the top of Ormiston Hill above Newburgh is a perfect example. It’s only 744 feet high, but from the top we can look out over the Silvery Tay to the Carse of Gowrie, the Sidlaws and the Grampians in a wide sweep that stretches all the way from Perth to Dundee. Little wonder our ancestors chose this spot to build a fort.

It may be a small hill, but this morning it posed one or two challenges. As I neared the top, I spotted the head of a cow pop over the horizon a few hundred yards away – then there were two. Then five. Within seconds there were about thirty cows and young calves (never a good combination) heading my way! Having watched Crocodile Dundee, though, I knew exactly what to do – point two fingers at their eyes and hum. Or was that for buffalo?

Plan B was to loup the fence into the next field and seemed a much safer idea. The final climb to the large stone cairn placed another obstacle in my way – finding a way through the maze of jaggy whin bushes. Certainly not recommended for anyone wearing shorts!

Needless-to-say, the view over Newburgh and the Tay made it all worthwhile and, oddly enough, on the way back down the cattle had disappeared.

 

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