Harran Hill Wood, Fife

Isn't it great that we now have map locations - I don't have to try to explain where this place is! We were here partly to see the bluebells, but were a bit early as they won't be at their best for another week or two. However we won't be back again this year, so here are what there were. We started out from Lochore Meadows Country Park, a beautiful place, created over 30 years ago out of a former mining area, so it has had time to grow and mature. Harran Hill Wood lies to the north of this and is a listed country wildlife site with a great variety of plants and ferns. We then embarked on what turned out to be the most adventurous part of the expedition: we climbed the ridge of hills lying to the north of Harran Hill Wood, but my map-reading skills were a bit deficient and we ended up on the wrong hill - not far from the hill we had intended climbing, Benarty Hill, but far enough not to go up it. However, the views north are amazing from any point of that ridge - you can see Loch Leven, a huge inland loch which is managed as a wildlife reserve, and to the north of that, the highlands of Perthshire, which were snow-covered and shining in the sunshine. Weren't we lucky with the weather! Anyway, the return route was anything but a repeat of the outward route, as we failed to grasp the necessity of returning via a gate into a fenced enclosure, which turned out to cover virtually the whole hillside. And it's more recent than the map, so it wasn't my map-reading which was to blame this time. So much for the right to roam! We thought at one point we would have to climb a deer-proof fence, (which we would have tried rather than go back up the hill) but against all odds managed to find a way through. So we arrived back at the car park after everyone else had left, but at least we weren't locked in!