📌 Cleish Hills, Perth and Kinross
★★
At 379 metres above sea level, Dumglow is the highest of the Cleish Hills – a knobbly group of craggy hillocks dispersed across several miles of moorland north of Dunfermline. Despite its proximity to Edinburgh, the summit is seldom visited except for by locals. That might have something to do with the tricky surroundings: dense forestry plantations, tussocky grassland, boggy loch shores and unscalable deer fences. We recommend approaching from the northeast, looping around via Windy Gate; this way, the first proper view of Dumglow is from its handsomest, west side. Careful route finding in the woods is essential and boggy stretches are unavoidable by this route. The more open return over little Dummiefarline is more straightforward, but a few fallen trees must still be negotiated.
📷 Chronological photo guide
View back over Kinross-shire from the outward track 
The track eventually deteriorates to a boggy path 
Re-entering the trees after the boggy open area 
Boggy firebreak 
Turning left (south) soon after meeting this track 
Firebreak leading towards the Georgeton Hills 
Skirting the north slopes of the Georgeton Hills 
Dumglow (left) & Black Loch 
Dumglow 
Looking back from the steep final ascent 
Dumglow summit, looking northeast towards Loch Leven 
View northwest towards the Ochil Hills 
View southwest to Knock Hill 
Descending southeast from Dumglow, Loch Glow beyond 
Entrance to the forest 
The Inneans beyond a felled area 
Gate in the deer fence at the end of the felled area 
Lurg Loch (right), Loch Leven (left) & the Lomond Hills from the approach to Dummiefarline 
Dummiefarline 
Dummiefarline summit, looking southeast 
Looking northeast to Loch Leven 
Looking north 
Looking west 
Another deer fence gate enables the return to the roadside
🌍 Location
📌 Start / finish at track junction near Kirkhill Common, minor road 1 mi south of Cleish
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NT 093971
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 56.158273,-3.461039
❌ A bus to Cleish Mill Farm (1 mi) is too infrequent to use for this route
🚗 Verge parking – don’t block passing places or track access
📝 Key info
▶ 6 km / 4 mi | ▲ 280 m | ⌛ 3 hr
Features: △ Dumglow (379 m, sub-2000′ Marilyn); △ Dummiefarline (305 m)
⬤⬤ Moderate to Tough | Good track eventually deteriorates to an increasingly boggy path, followed by squelchy firebreaks. Once out of the forest, there are only intermittent paths but much drier ground for remainder of route. Descent from Dumglow is blocked by a few fallen trees (avoidable to right). Careful navigation required.
Download file for GPS➡️ Anticlockwise circuit: start – continue ahead at track junction at 🧭 NT 082970 – continue ahead as track narrows to path (eventually faint & boggy through open area) – continue ahead through boggy firebreak until wide track – continue ahead for <100m to next firebreak at 🧭 NT 072969 / 🛰️ 56.155442,-3.495954 – turn left along firebreak – bear right after 100m to eventually exit forest (phew!) at 🧭 NT 070967 – head east, skirting southern flank of forest – Dumglow – re-enter forest at 🧭 NT 080963 – follow firebreak due east – leave forest through gate at 🧭 NT 087964 – Dummiefarline via gap between northernmost two Inneans – rejoin road through deer fence a few hundred metres east of hairpin bend – start
🥾 On our last visit
Wildlife: Buzzard, pheasant, butterflies & bees; noisy geese somewhere in the distance.
Weather: Sunny, 10°C or so with a pleasant breeze higher up.
March 2022
