Conic Hill has been
described as a “fairly steep-sided hogs-back ridge", a pretty accurate
description
although the origin of its name comes from the Gaelic A’Coinneach,
which refers to moss or boggy
ground. That’s probably a better description, especially on a wet
winter's afternoon.
A stiff climb rises from the car park in Balmaha up through the woods
and on to a broad wet col and hence to
the summit
of Conic Hill commanding the
island-speckled waters of Loch Lomond.
Here lies a stretch of water that shares itself between the highlands
and the lowlands, wide spreading and generous in its southern reaches
but gradually growing narrower as it reaches north before its steel
grey waters are
choked off by tumbling hillsides and crags.
Conic Hill stands slap-bang on the Highland Boundary Fault, the
geological fault-line that runs from the
southern end of Loch Lomond to Stonehaven on the northeast coast, and
in clear weather the views from
here are hard to beat.
To the south, the Garguunock and Fintry Hills lead in to the northern
escarpment of the Campsies, and
through the wide gap of Strath Blane you might just glimpse the tower
blocks of Glasgow. Further west,
the Kilpatrick Hills dominate before falling away into the Vale of
Leven, through which the distant
chimney of the lnverkip Power Station on the River Clyde rises. Beyond
it, natural forms reassert
themselves in the shape of the mountains of Arran.
ln the north, Ben Lomond rises over everything else and beyond it the
tumble of mountains goes on
as though for ever. Across the loch the Luss hills give a gentle
pre-amble to the wild form of the Arrochar
Alps and the surrealistic shape of their jewel, Ben Arthur / the
Cobbler.
A full traverse of Conic Hill is obtained
by following the West Highland Way from Drymen
to Balmaha.
:: West Highland
Way 
