My first Marilyn of 2012 was one of the most bizarre ever; Benbeoch, the official way. Having obtained permission from the mining company, Anne Bunn and I duly reported at the appointed time to the office a few miles away for a safety briefing and the issue of high visibility jackets, hard hats and walkie-talkies. We followed the engineer to a car park at the foot of the hill where we had to wait ages for a guy in a Land Rover to appear and take us to within a few hundred metres of the summit where he waited while we bagged the hill and then he ferried us back to safety. The bureaucracy was so tedious that we wished we'd just sneaked in and dodged the site vehicles.
If that was the easiest hill of 2012, Deuchary Hill was one of the hardest. There is a superb network of cyclable paths lower down but as soon as you leave them, the heather is purgatory.
Best hills of the year were undoubtedly my first ten Lewis Marilyns but it is impossible to pick a favourite between the Pairc hills and those of the west coast above Uig. I must also mention a great week based in Helmsdale which included the Griams and most of the others lining both sides of the Strath of Kildonan.
My final Marilyn was probably the second easiest: Cheriton Hill from the Cat and Custard Pot base camp, although the highest point is uncertain. After visiting the trig near the covered reservoir, I settled for the fence corner south of the communications mast.
