SUW3: Across the Purgatory Burn

11.8 miles  5h 47m  ascent 365m,  max elevation Craigairie Fell 320m

Route: SUW, Dranigower to Tannylaggie

A warm damp day, with neither rain nor drizzle, but dampness precipitating directly from the air. Though humid doesn’t seem a word one would use for conditions in D&G, it does seem the best descriptor for this day. The low cloud put paid to any views of the surrounding hills, but we had seen them last month so were able to give more attention to closer things, like the plants underfoot.

Our start point was Dranigower Bridge. Dranigower means blackthorn thicket of the goats and I was a little disappointed at first to find Hawthorns close by, but I’m pleased to say that we did pass a lichen covered Blackthorn a little further along. No goats though.

Blackthorn

The road climbed gently past the cottage at Balmurrie to the farmhouse and soon had us warmed up. Within a quarter of an hour I realised that I had dressed a little too warmly and stopped to peel off a layer before I overheated. We then crossed one of those worrying areas where the OS has the tufts of grass in both blue and green, but the track remained firm and dry. We soon came to a sign off to the right which read “Cairn Na Gath 800m”. I set off up the wee slope to see if I could get a view of it but gave up before I got to the top of the brew.

In retrospect that decision was a mistake since had I gone the extra 50m I might have noticed that we had missed a turning in the SUW. Needless to say we followed a well trodden track that became progressively less well defined then disappeared leaving us in moorland with no visible landmarks and no SUW posts. We headed for some higher ground and then followed the dyke eastwards on the assumption that the SUW would have to cross the wall and would have a way of crossing the wall. I suspect that were not the first walkers to have gone that way since there did seem to be a faint track at times. Eventually we found steps over the wall and an SUW way marker, albeit a midget one half the usual size.

I suspect that the path marked towards Cairn na Gath is actually the SUW at that point and if not it would certainly have to cross the SUW. Carn na Gath (Cairn of the wildcat), is a neolithic burial cairn 30m long.

Cairn na Gath in the background

But we did get an opportunity to moan about the lack of marker posts where they are needed and to experience a walk across pathless moorland even if it was only for a few minutes. I will admit that finding the path again was a relief.

Funny walking stick

Back on the way-marked path we followed the marker posts into a quagmire on the far side of Knockniehourie where the height of ones boot mattered as much as its waterproofing. I gathered from the sounds behind me that Audrey’s boot height had been tested and found wanting.

The next section was along a wide forest break through knee deep grass that led us to a footbridge at the Purgatory Burn. The burn here is narrow and deep but widens to the west. This rather unusual name derives from the time when lepers were given the last rites at Glenluce Abbey then journeyed across the moors to the leper colony near Loch Derry. Once the lepers had crossed the Purgatory Burn they could not return. They would later wash in water from the Wells of the Rees which were thought to have healing properties.

The point of no return

A path of sorts has been laid beyond the footbridge which gives firmer footing for a while. There were a great many red topped mushrooms (without white spots) at the edge of the forest and when we got a little closer to take photos we could see that the entire forest floor had them.

Red Mushrooms in the forest

We next joined a forestry track for about half a mile. The red mushrooms were still seen here but less numerous than in the earlier section. The SUW leaves the track to head through the forest (with a large signpost) and here we found a bucket of disinfectant with a brush and a sign asking us to clean our boots and carefully remove pine needles from our clothes to help prevent the spread of phytophthora. It must be the first time I have cleaned my boots on purpose in the middle of a walk.

Laggangarn and bothy

Laggangarn was only a few minutes away. Our first glimpse was of a ruined wall and a cairn and then the wooden “beehive” bothy. The visitors book (vol. 6) explained that it had been built in Autumn 1993 by Charles Gulland as a place for rest and shelter for users of the SUW. We rested in the bothy and had our lunch sheltered from the elements. The door is quite small, so much so that at first I thought it was a window, and I somehow managed to bang not my head but my back on the lintel. The last entry in the visitors book was two days earlier from a ranger who had just met power workers scouting for sites for turbines. What a shame.

I had thought that the Laggangarn standing stones would be in the same clearing so went up to the higher ground to look for them. They are actually in another clearing 300m further on but I didn’t know that then. On the higher ground is another ruined building and quite close is a substantial road/track not marked on the OS map, perhaps for the coming turbines.

Laggangarn standing stones

Once rested and fed, and just a little drier, we set off and were soon at the Laggangarn standing stones. I looked at these two stones and for some reason the first thought that came to mind was “Lot and his wife”. They certainly are a size and shape to suggest a man and his wife. These two grey sandstone monoliths are said to be the survivors of a bronze age circle of 14 of which 7 were still present in 1873. Some of missing stones are now lintels in the nearby ruins. Though the stone circle dates back 4000 years these stones have been decorated with christian crosses, the style of the crosses suggesting they were added in the eighth century.

Laggangarn. Lagan g-carn, hollow of the cairns. There are some remarkable remains at this place on the Tarf. The old pack-horse track crosses the river under Kilgallioch and there used to be here three standing stones, of which two now remain, each bearing large incised crosses. A story is told of a man who, in rebuilding the now deserted farm-house of Laggangarn, carried off one of the standing stones to form a lintel. Some time afterwards his sheep-dogs went mad and bit him. He also went mad, and his wife and daughters ” smoored him atween twa cauf beds “ (smothered him between two mattresses filled with chaff), and buried him on the hillside, placing the broken stone over his grave. It is a desolate region.

Topography of Galloway, Herbert Maxwell, 1887

Despite the desolation, the ground around the two standing stones had been newly mown, presumably by Historic Scotland,

The Tarf Burn runs close by with a wooden footbridge that leads to a forestry track. The SUW though leaves the track almost immediately and heads through trees up to the bracken covered moorland of the Wells of the Rees. Having battled through the wet bracken to the Wells less than a month earlier we decided to revisit them in our memories rather than in reality.

Craig Airie Fell summit

We now passed through a section of felled forest draped in mist and looking like a film set for Mordor or the Somme. The ground was squelchy and occasionally very wet. The excellent views we had in August during the recce for this walk were lost in the mist but we still stopped at the summit of Craig Airie Fell for a snack and looked into the mist.

We then made our way down out of the mist and back along the SUW, past Loch Derry (Liberland, the leper’s land was on its far side) and Derry farm and then along the potholed road.

Polbae Burn

The road near Polbae has forestry fir trees to the right and broad leafed trees along the Polbae burn to our left. It looked as if Polbae may once have been a planned garden that has now run wild. We walked along trying to identufy the trees and plants until we reached Tannylaggie bridge and crossed the Bladnoch to reach the car with its promise of dry footwear.

Some flora:

With: Audrey

 

 

 

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