Monday 5 January 2015

Goseland Hill GM/SS-203 January 2015

A Hotel in Scotland is an expensive place to be over New Year, but just after that you can get a short break at a bargain price via Travelzoo and this my XYL Judy and I did in January 2015, when we stayed at a Hotel near Biggar in the Borders that looked a little like a Castle:

Shieldhill Castle Hotel
I get tired of hearing about all the places that Oliver Cromwell slept. Well he didn't stay at Shieldhill, but Nelson Mandella did in 1997 when he was attending the Commonwealth Conference that year in Edinburgh. We saw the now maturing tree he planted in the garden. The great man, who by 1997 was the master of his jailers, may have slept in the same room as we did for the four nights we were there - fine business!

It's hard to get Judy to sit on a summit for upwards of an hour in the UK winter so I was on my own for the four HF activations I planned to do on this short holiday which included day trips into Lanark, Glasgow and Edinburgh

Goseland Hill GM/SS-203

Click to get full size map
After checking in on our arrival day I left at 3.15pm local time to go to Goseland Hill which is less than 6 miles south east of the hotel. I located a small worked out quarry and parked here (NT 072344). It took less than 20 minutes to reach the trig point in failing light. I was walking over rough moorland, my route down one hour later following a quad track in the dark, was much easier walking, so if you visit this summit take note. As I approached the lights of the farm Gosland in the dark on my way down I took a swerve due to a barking dog there that was piercing the still night air. 

As the light went Goseland Hill felt a lonely place to be...
Transceiver: FT-857 50 watts output, Palm Key
Antenna: 40m Dipole on 6m pole
Contacts made: 32 (10 EU Countries) in 25 minutes CW - SSB

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