Hill of the Wangie
Hill of the Wangie, Dallas, Moray. Section 9A.
Height - 319 metres. Map – OS Landranger 28.
Climbed - 2 December 2011. Time taken – 1 hour.
Distance – 3 kilometres. Ascent – 155 metres.
Trip Report Details:
The Sub 2000 Marilyn, Hill of the Wangie, is located south-west of Elgin in Morayshire. I had read that locating the summit was difficult and that some folks spent a considerable time looking for the trig point, as the hill was covered in trees. I had also read on the Scottish Hills forums that ‘foggieclimber’ had ascended the hill last winter, in the snow, and had recorded significant grid references. Prior to setting out for Moray I entered these points into my GPS.
The start of the walk was the B9010, east of the road leading to Tombreck Farm, where I parked on the wide verge on the south side. I crossed the road where a locked gate prevented vehicular access to the forest track. I followed this track the short distance to the clearance where the forum author had climbed through snow covered vegetation to reach the track above. However, due to the dead bracken this route didn’t appeal to me, so I continued along the track. I soon came to a forestry sign indicating that an unofficial mountain bike trail had been closed. I was tempted to explore it but decided to continue to the junction of tracks where I took a right, re-crossed the mountain bike trail, and arrived at the third grid reference.
Here I had no option but climb through the rough ground, which included some old tree stumps, and led to another vehicle track. This point could have been reached by taking a much longer route following forest tracks to the west.
I was aware of the limitations of my GPS, especially in forests, but knowing the exact distance between the grid references was useful as I paced each section. The firebreak mentioned in the forum was easily located and I made a gradual ascent through this gap loosing the GPS signal as expected. At the end of the measured distance I turned left and found the second firebreak which was partially obscured by trees.
It wasn’t obvious that I was gaining any height and I could now understand why folks had difficulty locating the trig point. However I continued along the firebreak keeping an eye out for it. I briefly received a GPS signal and I was therefore able to pace the remainder of the distance along the firebreak before I spotted the trig point set amongst the trees.
On reaching the trig point I about turned and re-traced the route back to my car without the need for pacing.
Photos taken on walk.