A Black and White walk round Loch Trool

Tuesday the 13th December 2011.
It's a dull cold and windy day.
I'm going to do an anti clockwise walk around Loch Trool from the Caldon's Car Park.
Today's pictures with the exception of one will be black and white to reflect the mood of the day.
There's not many people about today apart from workmen.The Loch Trool trail and the Water of Trool path are being upgraded.

A right click and 'Open in new tab' will allow you to read this information board.
Watch out for mad hairy Scotsmen rolling boulders downhill.

There's a fair flow of water today and signs of the high winds we've been having.

Across the loch, trees are being felled.
The fungi are shrivelling up.

The path is quite broken up and muddy.

Across the loch now stands the Fell of Eschoncan above Bruce's Stone.
Apart from a few small birds, I don't see much wildlife.

Looking east I see the Gairland Burn tumbling down.
(One or two of my early posts from 4 years ago mistakenly have this as the Glenhead Burn, I've much more 'Nous' geographically nowadays)
Benyellery has plenty of snow while Buchan Hill looks moody.

There's a light shining over at Glentrool Lodge.

Top picture of the above collage shows Benyellery again above the Buchan Burn.
Also in the picture is 'The Buchan' ,another picture later.
And the area towards the end of the loch known as Ringielawn

Another look across to the Fell of Eschoncan and another of the Gairland Burn.
It was about here a lady overtook me.I guess she was a seasoned hill walker as she was heading up Mulldonoch via White Bennan.
Also around this point was the Battle of Trool back in 1307.

So ! Here's a bit of colour.

After leaving the loch behind it's a short distance to the footbridge across the Glenhead Burn.

Now I'm turning back along the northern edge of the loch.As well as Mulldonoch I can see Bennanbrack and White Hill.
The SUW runs below those hills towards Loch Dee.
 

The beautiful Gairland Burn.Remember this my wee lassies ?
I wonder if it got it's name by the way it tumbles down like a Garland, or is it from the Gaelic 'Gearr' meaning short or from the old Scots 'Gair' meaning a colourful ribbon.Whoever named it will know, but i'd guess they'd be long gone by now.

Mulldonoch,I'd assume our lady climber was above the trees by now .I can't pick out any movement since I didn't bring along my binoculars.

I wonder if the Buchan has any visitors at this time of year.There's a hot tub in the conservatory, see here The Buchan Glentrool

Here the Buchan Burn tumbles towards the loch.

I'm up at Bruce's stone now.
I could have at least smiled on my self timed picture.

It's tarmac and mostly downhill now.The wind seems a bit colder.

I can count twelve chimneys down on Glentrool Lodge.Does anyone know different ?

Now I'm on level ground I can get glimpses of Lamachan and Larg Hills behind Cambrick and Craignaw.
The tree felling I saw from the other side is at Kenmure.

There's lots of  lumps of snow along the roadside.I can amuse myself by imagining them as objects or creatures.I can see a polar bear in the above picture.

Here's a fine mix for the ark !

And I'm back at Caldons.

A cup of coffee and a catch up at 'Benyellery' sounds a good way to finish this nice walk.

And it was !