An Easter Backpack in the Galloway Hills: Day 2 - Mullwharchar and the Northern Rhinns of Kells

Saturday 19th April 2014

A long sunny day in the hills, during which I only saw one other person! 

Distance: 26km; Ascent: 1220m; Warm & sunny; Solo

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After a reasonable night's sleep, I woke up to a gloriously sunny morning next to Loch Enoch high in the Galloway Hills.  There were excellent views across the crystal clear water towards The Merrick rising above the far side of the loch.

Morning sun at my Loch Enoch camp

Loch Enoch

I set off walking at around 9am and headed up the southern slopes of my first hill of the day, Mullwharchar, with fantastic views all around.  Soon I reached the cairn on the summit of Mullwharchar (Graham, Donald).  I took a short break by the cairn for a second breakfast, whilst admiring the views.

Mullwharchar summit cairn

Looking west to The Merrick & Kirriereoch Hill from Mullwharchar

Looking north towards Loch Doon from the N ridge of Mullwharchar

I continued northwards along the ridge, past my planned campsite for last night, to reach the summit of Hoodens Hill (Donald Dewey).  From here there were good views northwards to Loch Doon, and from a little bit further down the ridge I could pick out my planned route through the cleared forest to a footbridge over Gala Lane.

Summit rocks of Hoodens Hill

Looking down to Loch Doon and Gala Lane from the N ridge of Hoodens Hill

As I continued northwards the ridge narrowed and became more distinct, with a faint path heading down the ridge.  By now I was quite low on water and the day was starting to warm up, so I detoured westwards to resupply from the pleasant looking burn of Eglin Lane.

Loch Macaterick and Eglin Lane

Eglin Lane

My route down to the footbridge, through the cleared forest, was easier than I expected but still quite boggy in places.  At the footbridge I stopped for my first lunch break, and soon after I crossed the footbridge I joined a forest road, on which I made fast progress heading NNE towards my next hills.

On the forest road on route to the next range of hills

Log pile

The forest road annoyingly, although not surprisingly, ended in the middle of the woods leaving me with around a kilometre of forest to make my way through to reach the open hillside.  Luckily there were several firebreaks to make this easier, although I still ended up having to push through the last few metres of densely planted trees to reach the open ground above.  Now I was out of the forest, I soon joined up with a reasonable path ascending up to reach the summit of Coran of Portmark (Donald, Graham Top).  Shortly before reaching the summit I met the only other person I'd see all day, who had just finished a traverse of the Rhinns of Kells.

Loch Doon from the NW slopes of Coran of Portmark

Summit cairn of Coran of Portmark

After a good break for a second lunch by the cairn, I continued southwards over the summit of Bow (Donald Top, Graham Top) to reach the trigpoint on the summit of Meaul (Donald, Graham Top), with good views of the next section of the walk along the ridge to Corserine.

Cairn on Bow summit

Trigpoint on Meaul; looking towards Corserine

I now ascended up to above 800m for the first time on this backpack and headed towards the massive cairn on the summit of Carlin's Cairn (Donald, Graham Top).  From here I could make out my route on to Corserine, which appeared to be quite a bulky hill.

Carlin's Cairn

Corserine from the North

A final pull brought me up to the trigpoint on the summit of Corserine (Corbett, Donald), where I stopped for a break whilst deciding where I should camp for the evening.  My original plan had been to reach the Lochans of Auchniebut, but to reach this spot would involve climbing a further two hills today and I doubted I'd have time to do this before sunset.  Therefore instead I settled on somewhere on the ridge between Corserine and Millfire.

Carlin's Cairn from the N slopes of Corserine

On the summit of Corserine

Looking south along the Rhinns of Kells ridge

I took a detour east from the southern ridge of Corserine to stock up with water from the headwaters of the Hawse Burn, which here ran through a quite steep sided little gorge high up on the hillside.  Regaining the ridge, I continued southwards before finding a lovely flat grassy spot to camp high up on the ridge with excellent views.  I pitched my tent and watched the sun set over The Merrick whilst enjoying a pleasant dinner of couscous, pepper and chorizo.

Ridge top camp in the Rhinns of Kells

Sunset from the tent

My Planned Route for This Year's TGO Challenge

Below is a map showing my planned route for this year's TGO Challenge, from Glenelg to Montrose.  I'll be setting off this coming Friday and later this week I'll post another version of this map that'll include live updates from my SPOT device.

See map on Social Hiking site or full size in a new window

An Easter Backpack in the Galloway Hills: Day 1 - The Dungeon Hills

Friday 18th April 2014

A sunny afternoon start to an excellent backpack in SW Scotland 

Distance: 11km; Ascent: 770m; Warm & sunny; Solo

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I had been planning on going backpacking over the Easter weekend for some time now, but had delayed making any specific plans due to the risk of late lying snow in some of the mountainous areas. Therefore when the weather forecast looked very promising in the week before Easter I set about coming up with a hilly backpack for the weekend.

I decided to return to an area that I hadn't walked in for some time: the Galloway Hills in the Southern Uplands. I'd only previously been there for a weekend back in 2005 during which we walked in the Awful Hand range of hills and on Cairnsmore of Fleet, so I was well overdue a return visit. In fact the Southern Uplands as a whole are an area I've walked very little in, pretty much limited to a backpack from Moffat to Pebbles in 2008 and a wander up Tinto last May.

Bruce's Stone, Glen Trool

Bruce's Stone, Glen Trool

Therefore after the long drive from home north, and then west, I set off walking from the road head in Glen Trool at around 3pm this afternoon. I had a brief look at the Bruce's Stone, before picking up a footpath ascending towards the upper part of the Gairland Burn.

Start of the path up to Loch Valley

Loch Trool

Some of the many flowers on the way up to Loch Valley

It was quite warm this afternoon and I was very glad to be wearing shorts whilst lugging my heavy pack up the hill! Soon I reached flatter ground with excellent views across Loch Valley to the Rig of the Jarkness. Around here I met the only other walkers I'd see for the afternoon since leaving the forest road.

The Gairland Burn

Loch Valley

Loch Valley and the Rig of the Jarkness

I continued for a few hundred metres towards Loch Neldricken before heading east to ascend over rough ground towards Snibe Hill. As I ascended the ground became rockier, with plenty of granite boulders littering the hillside.

The Merrick across Loch Neldricken

A Perched Boulder on the west ridge of the Snibe Hill

The views were excellent as I continued to ascend, now often over the bare granite slabs.  At around quarter to six I reached the summit of Craignaw (Graham, Donald), where I stopped for a while to admire the stunning views :-)

One of the many granite slabs on Craignaw

The summit rocks of Craignaw

On the summit of Craignaw

It was a steep, awkward and rocky descent northwards from the summit to reach the Devil's Bowling Green.  From here I continued northwards along the ridge to reach the cairn at the bealach below Craignairny. My original plan had been to ascend this small hill, but due to my somewhat later than planned start this afternoon, I instead opted to skirt it to the SE before heading up to the summit of Dungeon Hill (Donald, HuMP, Graham Top).

The Devil's Bowling Green on the NNW ridge of Craignaw

Looking N from the Devil's Bowling Green

On the summit of Dungeon Hill

Near the summit I stopped a couple of goats, who soon ran away when they spotted me! By now it was quite late and I didn't think I'd make my planned campsite beyond Mullwharchar by sunset. Therefore I instead chose to camp by the lovely sandy beaches of Loch Enoch. I pitched on the least lumpy bit of ground I could find and soon had a dinner of pasta, peppers and chorizo whilst watching the last light of the day fade beyond Merrick to the west.

Camp by Loch Enoch at Dusk

A Misty Friday in the Eastern Lakeland Fells

Friday 4th April 2014

A circular walk up High Street from Troutbeck 

Distance: 24km; Ascent: 1290m; Misty with light winds; with Martin

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It had been a while since I'd last been walking in the Lake District, so I made plans to head up to the Eastern Fells today in the company of Martin.  We set off walking from Church Bridge shortly before 10:30am and navigated (mainly successfully!) our way through a holiday park to reach a bridlepath, which ran roughly parallel to the main road on the other side of Trout Beck.  After a number of kilometres of reasonably level walking, we crossed Hagg Gill and ascended steeply into the mist to reach the summit of Troutbeck Tongue (Wainwright, Birkett).

Jesus Church, Troutbeck

Cairn on Troutbeck Tongue

A reasonably level ridge led northwards for around a kilometre and a half, before we picked up the line of the old High Street Roman Road and soon became to ascend steeply.   Around half way up the 500m ascent we took a short break for lunch in the mist before continuing on up to the summit of Thornthwaite Crag (Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett).

We decided to detour northwards to visit the trigpoint on the summit of High Street (Nuttall, Marilyn, Wainwright, Birkett), before following the wall back in a SSW direction.

Thornthwaite Crag beacon

On the summit of Thornthwaite Crag

By the trig point on High Street

By the trig point on High Street

After almost re-ascending Thornthwaite Crag, we followed the ridge southwards in the mist to reach the summit of Froswick (Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett).  It was relatively quiet on the fells today and so far we had only seen a handful of other walkers.  We stopped for a quick break on Froswick before continuing on to the twin cairns on the summit of Ill Bell (Nuttall, HuMP, Wainwright, Birkett).

Cairn on Ill Bell

Now we just had one 2000ft peak left for the day, and we soon reached the summit of Yoke (Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett).

On the summit of Yoke

Descending the south slopes of Yoke we soon dropped out of the cloud :-)  We estimated that the cloud base was now at around 500m, having risen from below 300m when we set off walking this morning.  A pleasant walk across the Garburn Pass brought us to the summit of our next hill: Sallows (Dewey, Wainwright, Birkett).

Looking south towards Sallows

On the summit of Sallows

We followed a wall around the head of the Wardless coire with good views back to the cloud covered eastern fells.

Looking back north towards the High Street fells

Heading for Sour Howes

After a slippery stile crossing we reached the summit of Capple Howe (Birkett), our penultimate hill of the day.  A walk of a few hundred metres NW brought us to our last summit of the day: Sour Howes (Wainwright, Birkett).

On the summit of Sour Howes

Windermere from Sour Howes

We descended across Applethwaite Common with good views over Windermere to reach the Garburn Road, which we followed back down to the main road, emerging a short distance to the south of Church Bridge.

On the Garburn Road

It had been a good day's walking despite the low cloud.  Many thanks to Martin for the company; his somewhat more prompt account of today's walk can be found here.

TGO Challenge Spring Gathering 2014

Saturday 8th March 2014 

A walk over the moorlands of the Dark Peak, passing several aircraft wrecks 

Distance: 22.5km; Ascent: 780m; Dry, but misty at first; with lots of other TGO Challengers

See tracked route in new window

Martin had kindly agreed to give me a lift over to the Snake Inn for today's TGO Challenge reunion walk in the Dark Peak.  We set off walking at around 10am and headed up Lady Clough to reach the start of the Doctor's Gate path, which we followed up into the mist.  The cloud didn't last for long though and soon we were descending down into the upper part of the Shelf Brook valley with good views over the nearby moorland.

In the upper part of Lady Clough

Heading down Doctor's Gate towards Glossop

Shelf Moor from Doctor's Gate

After a break for lunch we began our steep ascent of Ashton Clough, past various bits of aircraft wreckage in and around the clough.

Some of the C47 Skytrain remains in Ashton Clough

The upper part of Ashton Clough

After topping out onto the moorland above the clough, we came across further aircraft wreckage nearby on James's Thorn and from here we headed east across Shelf Moor.

Further remains of the C47 Skytrain above Ashton Clough

A few remains of a Lancaster on James's Thorn

Shelf Moor

Soon we reached our high point for the day at the summit of Higher Shelf Stones (Nuttall), where I stopped for a few minutes near the trigpoint to admire the views.

Summit rocks of Higher Shelf Stones

From the summit rocks of Higher Shelf Stones we made our way across the moor towards the Pennine Way, passing further aircraft wreckage in the peat.

Group approaching the Superfortress remains

Some of the Superfortress remains near Higher Shelf Stones

More of the Superfortress remains

Soon we reached the junction of the Pennine Way with the Doctor's Gate path, from where most of the group retraced our outward route back to the pub.  However a small group of us decided to have a bit more a walk given that there were still several hours of daylight left to enjoy.  Therefore we followed the Pennine Way across the top of the Snake Pass and on across the moorland to reach the summit of Mill Hill (Dewey), our second and last summit for the day.

Looking towards Kinder from Mill Hill

Before descending, Graham took us on a short detour to visit the crash site of a fourth aircraft on the western slopes on Mill Hill, which I had previously walked past one evening last August.

Some of the Liberator remains on Mill Hill

More of the Liberator remains

At the path junction between Mill Hill and the NW edge of Kinder, we left the Pennine Way and headed down the pleasant Ashop Clough, pretty much all the way back to the pub. Later that afternoon Lynsey arrived and we had an enjoyable evening in the pub in the pleasant company of many other TGO Challengers.

Footpath junction near Ashop Head

In Ashop Clough

Martin's somewhat more detailed and prompt description of the day's walk can be found here, together with more details of the various different aircraft wrecks we encountered during the day.