Getting camping & walking info on an unknown woods?

[Wook]

I've been getting a bit tired of the nearby Montreathmont Forest as my lurking grounds. It is a Forestry Commission commercial plantation and rife with dog walkers and chainsaws.

I've long admired a seemingly quite large woods just a few miles from my house. It is called Fotheringham Hill and it is not Forestry Commission. It has a lot of beech trees apparently which sounds much nicer than densely planted commercial conifers.

It sits atop a hill and is visible from miles around. However, how you actually approach it is not so clear. I've tried to find road access to it before, but with no luck. Now I've taken to looking at my OS maps and they appear to show a track up through the woods to the top, where an old antenna sits. At least one of the tracks marked on the maps, when you examine it using google earth has become so overgrown as to be invisible. It is reasonable to conclude that much of the other track information on the OS maps is also wrong.

Additionally, I cannot find is anywhere near to safely park a car or anything that looks like the beginning of a walk. Most the tracks appear to start from private farms. I also cannot find any info on who owns the woods, what activities they permit (i.e. campfires and camping), whether they are friendly to walkers...

In fact I can barely find anything suggesting people go for walks there at all. There is a reference to Fotheringham Hill on one rambling webpage I found, but that seems to be it.

Has anyone from NE Scotland ever walked there? Or failing that, are there any established principles for gathering info on unknown woods that I could follow?

Of course I could just park my car across some farmers drive and go ambling up there without so much as a by-your-leave, but I don't think that is the best approach

Thanks

[bigroomboy]

Well just park somewhere sensible and walk up and take a look around! you are in scotland its your right. you could stay there aswell aslong as it does not break any of the right to roam guidelines. A fire is another matter, you need permission from the land owner, either ask at the nearby farms or land registry office.