Wednesday 6 July 2022

This weeks Wednesday Wander saw us investigate “That monument you see on the hill when you’re driving up the A92”.

The monument is dedicated to the Earl of Hopetoun who owned the land it stands on of Over Rankeilour.

Setting off from Letham we wandered along the Fife core path network before taking to the fields at Fernie where almost the entire selection of gate difficulties were encountered and groups of inquisitive cows tested our navigation and tracking skills.

Finally free of the fields we found ourselves next to a flooded quarry in the woods where a steep climb on long unused landrover tracks took us round, over and in Ru’s case under long fallen trees.

The summit was eventually reached and the view taken in from ground level as the Earl’s descendants appear to be ex-directory as attempts to find out if it could be unlocked for us failed.

Fife’s geographical challenges presented themselves as we descended by an easier route, were convinced we shouldn’t be able to see the Quaker Oat factory from here or in fact there, but consulting the map and GPS trace soon revealed that all was good and it was down to West Hall farm where we had a short road walk back to Fernie and easy back into Letham if only Ru would play ball as Katrina found herself doing some impromptu cross training to finish the evening off.

• Report by Niall