Today we decided at the last minute to mark the end of mountaineering season by climbing Tinto hill (711m/2,333 ft). Although it was not raining the clouds were very low… so low that we could barely see each other and we were almost blown away by the wind (not by the vistas as you would expect on a sunny day). Later on I found out that there is an old Scots children’s rhyme which tells of the “kist in the mist” at “Tinto tap”, kist being the Scots word for “chest”.

On Tintock tap, there is a mist,
And in that mist, there is a kist,
And in that kist, there is a cup,
And in that cup, there is a drap.
Tak’ up that cup, and drink that drap, that’s in yon kist, on Tintock tap!

If only we had known about it we wouldn’t need to carry those 20 bottles of Fruit Shoot for Stefan to get him going.