Visiting Scotland? | Try Dumyat
If you are visiting Scotland, a hill walk will help you experience the Scottish landscape. However, if you have limited time or confidence in hiking, you may be looking for an easy hill walk.
Dumyat (pronounced Dum-eye-at) is a relatively easy Scottish mountain to climb. It has clear paths and quite a few hill users – which makes it a safe one to try out.
You also get a magnificent view from the top!
In this blog, enjoy a virtual hill walk. It is written to give you a taste of visiting Scotland with our English language school – as well as help any visitors to Scotland get the most out of their holiday here.
Read on for a taste of Scotland with a trip up Dumyat – with glowing yellow socks, swifts and a Scottish psychedelic electro-pop classic anthem.
There’s a practice exercise for English learners at the end.
Don’t Just See Scotland, Be Scotland
When you join us for an English immersion holiday, you will see a lot of beautiful Perthshire, but we are a language school which explores across Scotland, including frequently visiting our neighbouring region of Stirlingshire: mostly for walking and for cultural events (Stirling’s Tolbooth is a fabulous music venue).
In fact, because we match English immersion activities to our learner’s interests, you really can explore a lot of Scotland with our English immersion holidays.
Yellow Socks, Swifts and Some Psychedelic Electro-Pop
Onwards and Upwards
Dumyat is part of the Ochil Hills, which local people run into one word, ‘Ochils’ (and you need a bit of flem to pronounce it right).
There are popular glen climbs between all the summits, which start at the individual villages of Tillicoultry, Alva and Dollar.
Known collectively as the Hillfoots – each was once a prosperous mill town. The villages shelter at the very foot of the hill range, with their textile mills once harnessing the power of the streams tumbling down the hills.
Dumyat is the most popular climb in the hill range. This is partly because it has a very good path up (for novice climbers – no chance of getting lost) and partly because you can drive about halfway up it (from Stirling University, follow signs for Sherrifmuir) (and there’s plenty of parking), making it quite an easy Scottish mountain to climb.
It’s a relatively gentle climb – many people jog and mountain bike it. Like all hills – it has its dangers.
Always wear weather-appropriate clothing and footwear and keep yourself safe.
No Easy Way for Us!
We eschewed the upper car park and parked at the foot of the hill at Logie Kirk.
There is an unsignposted woodland trail that winds up the shoulder of the hill and joins the main track about 3/4 of the way up.
We had it almost to ourselves.
A View From the Top
From the summit, you can see a rolling hillscape leading to higher hills and Highlands of the north of Scotland.
Look south over the Carse of Stirling – a huge low flat area that was once seabed, the Wallace Monument stands proud over the valley. Stirling Castle can be seen in the distance.
The River Forth winds snake-like through the carse.
A bird of prey riding the thermals, in the background the city of Stirling – seen from Dumyat.
A View Like No Other
What I love most about this region is the light. If you live near or beside the Ochils you will know they have different moods and they never quite look the same twice.
From high up, you can see the shadows of clouds staining villages and land as they pass overhead. You can watch mist and even clouds roll into the valley and obscure the town below.
There’s nothing quite like the light in this part of Scotland.
Book Tips for English Learners
Want to expand on your virtual trip up Dumyat? There’s a classic children’s storybook that might help.
From time to time I offend people by recommending books aimed at children to adult English learners.
I would never dream of offering Patsy’s Pony Adventure – or somesuch, but I adore fiction, including good children’s fiction. Trust me, this is a right rollicking adventure.
The Book Light on Dumyat
Here’s a taste to see if it is your cup of tea.
Protagonist Gavin, a Londoner, comes to visit his Aunt and Uncle who live near Stirling, and spies a light blinking on the slope of Dumyat. He is determined to investigate and quickly gets immersed in the landscape, nature, Highlander culture and adventure.
“I recommend this for any ESL English learner with an English level lower-intermediate and above, who has an interest in Scotland and a love of adventure stories. I’ve reread it as an adult and I still get goosebumps”
Ruth, 2021
Return to the Kirk
When we returned to the base of the hill we had a good wander around the graveyard of the old Logie Kirk.
Logie Kirk a blog subject in its own right. A beautiful shell of a small church surrounded by old graves, including war graves.
The new church is nearby and it’s an attractive building too.
Too Swift
Swifts were swooping quite low over the graveyard, catching insects and I spent way too long trying to get a shot of a swift (in focus) over a gravestone (foreground), with the bulky mass of Dumyat in the background.
The swifts were just too fast for me to even capture them. By the time I had pressed the shutter, they had passed through the frame.
It would have been better just shutting my eyes and pointing the camera at random – or setting up a timer…
However, when I got home, I did zoom into a photo that had just a speck of swift in it – and realised that I’d captured this incredible movement of the bird changing direction at speed.
No credit to the photographer at all. That’s the miracle of digital photography and being able to shoot off a hundred shots.
And finally… some Psychodelic Electro Pop
No dip into Scottish culture with a mountain theme could possibly be complete without a bit of classic Scottish rap – The Shamen‘s, Move Any Mountain.
The Shamen, mixed rock guitars, techno and hip-hop rhythms, sampled radio voices, beat machines with rap.
This clash of elements was perfectly alien to the mainstream Scottish music scene of the time (it was brewing nicely in America), but it took off big style. In many ways it influenced the future soundscape of the 90s, rattling the window of the Hillfoot villages and influencing Scottish bands like Primal Scream as it went.
Both Kenny and I grew up in the Central Belt (which lies just south of Perthshire) and Dumyat is our old stomping ground.
As we met later in life, we’d never actually climbed it together.
We loved it, I hope you enjoy your trip too! Let us know in the comments!
Further Information
This Language School Blog Explores Scotland
Hopefully, you enjoyed this virtual climb up Dumyat – chosen for you as an accessible and easy Scotiish mountain to climb on a short holiday in Scotland.
It’s just one of the many adventure activities you could do if you chose to learn English in Scotland with us!
If you’ve liked this blog, you might want to read about another immersion English activity we offer:
English Language Holiday Activities | Kayaking the River Tay
If you are planning a hill walk, prepare properly, including using a reliable website or map for directions. Dumayat is a relatively easy Scottish mountain to climb – but it can still be dangerous if you are ill-prepared.
Walking Highlands is a great resource to help you plan your hike. Find it here.
Your Blue Noun English Language Challenge is:
“The one that got away…”
This is an expression from fishing, saying the one that you didn’t manage to catch was better than all the ones you did catch. Of course, it is safely unprovable, so knock yourself out with your descriptions and imagination!
The structure here is ‘would have.’ For example:
My photo would have been good if I had captured the bird with the foreground in focus.
My week would have been different if my daughter hadn’t caught this virus.
We would have got lost in the mist if Kenny hadn’t been wearing his brightest pair of socks.
Notice where the past participles are used in the sentence structure and write about an artwork/photo or creation that didn’t work for you. What is something that, ‘would have been good if…‘
Write as much as you like, and if you would like us to check & correct your English, write CP (correct please) at the end.
Live language learning!
