[RWD version 1 ] I had the good fortune to encounter weather conditions that turned this relatively ordinary hill into something magical. It’s not a short approach, involving a 9km return journey, but it’s mostly fairly easy going. It was about minus five degrees when I was starting and the sun was just coming up over the icy landscape, making for some beautiful views. My starting point was at the entrance to a forest, where there’s just enough space to squeeze one car without blocking gate (which doesn’t appear to have been opened in several years anyway.) I ignored the first turn on the left and continued to a T-junction, then took a sharp left and followed this decent forest track for about 1.5km. Early morning frost made this part of the ascent a very pleasant walk through white-crusted vegetation.
Eventually this track petered out and the next bit was the only really unpleasant part, although it was mercifully short. Where the track ends, I could just about see a fence and a grassy field beyond it, separated from me by about 30m of very rough ground - new plantation on clear fell, full of brambles and reeds and very uneven underfoot. Anyway, having stumbled through that, I crossed a fence and turned north up a steepish grassy slope, which wasn’t too squishy underfoot despite it being November. After about 1km, the slope eased and I followed the fence NW. Looking back to the sprawling valley south and east, the conditions (blue skies, windless, just above zero) had resulted in the lower landscape being cloaked in a puffy white blanket, which looked marvellous. I continued NW for about another 1.5km, the slope gentle most of the way, to eventually reach a fairly well-defined summit area – the highpoint seems to be the upraised chunk of peat at the western end, marked by a rickety pole. Returned via same route. Great views of the Maumturks to the south and Partry & Joyce country to the east.