7.75 miles 498m ascent 3h 46m
Descriptions of this walk on the net include such comments as “Beware! Much of the ground on this route is horrific- tussock grass, boggy, rocky and felled forest areas. Its hard work” and “the going here is tough – wet, with deep heather and much tussocky ground.” As I found reading after the walk.
I had intended doing the quick route up Hart Fell today but the forecast said the cloud base would be at 700m and I didn’t fancy another walk in the mist. Delightful and soothing it may be, but the views and photo opportunities are somewhat reduced.
So where to go? As chance would have it, LOML was reading her magazines and said there was an article about Millfore. I had a glance and my mind was made up. Millfore it would be, another Donald to add to the list.
I parked by the Black Loch and though dry it was bitterly cold. So cold in fact that I kept my hat, gloves and coat on for the entire walk, which is unusual for me, since I’m not fully exertion-enabled and quickly heat up. Since it was a solo walk I decided to take my new hat, which has a bobble on top and presumably makes me look like Noddy. (Message to self – remember not to wear hat with red fleece and blue shorts.)
I decided as well to take my anvil-weighted bigger camera out as well to see if the pictures were any better. I don’t think they are but the camera added to my experience by twice bumping up into my face while I was climbing down some steep sections. This made me bite my tongue on one occasion and cut my lip on another. Damn camera must be cursed.
Anyway, with said camera I was able to take some more shots of the Eye at the end of Black Loch, though the light was rubbish and the shots are not much better than the last visit when it was overcast.
The forest track winds around the end of the Loch and climbs steadily. I took this as a good omen. The more climbing on nice tracks, the less on gallovidian terrain. Since there is no all encompassing adjective to capture wet, boggy, pathless, deep heather and tussock covered, I will in future use the term “gallovidian”. As it was, about half the walk was forestry and the other half gallovidian.
My first glimpse of Millfore was from the forestry track just after I passed beneath some electricity pylons. It looked grim and seemed to have steep rock strewn sides. Then as the track wound on Millfore’s summit dropped below a smaller hill, Kirkloch, and I forgot about the rocks.
There is a ridge running down SSE from Millfore and the I joined it it where the track runs near Poultrybuie Hill.
I left the track for gallovidian ground following a rather faint path and just to highlight the difference, within 20 paces of leaving the forestry track my right foot sank beneath the tussocks into ankle deep water. I managed to do the same at the same spot on the way down as well.
The path did not last long and then it was tussocks, heather and hidden pools as I made my way up. There were several very steep climbs, some up heather, others up rocks and my main hope was that on the way down I would spot a better way or even a path.
I came then to a barbed wire fence, much rusted and in disrepair. One area was trampled down by, I presumed, the passage of many walkers, so I used the gap, and followed the fence a while since it had tussock free ground near it. This led me a little to the east but took me away from the crags facing south. Eventually I spotted a cairn, and then another. These marked Kirkloch which is at about 400m. It had taken an hour to get here.
The views from Kirkloch were surprisingly extensive, with Cairnsmore of Fleet, Wigtown Bay, and even Criffel visible. To the east were Craignell and Darnaw as well as the dark lump of Black Craig of Dee.
From Kirkloch the ridge leading up to Millfire and a further 250m climb lay before me. There is a picture taken in summertime on the geograph site that says “this grassy ridge provides a very straightforward route to the summit”. It may look grassy but it isn’t. There was more gallovidian terrain and even a brief spot of scrambling.
As I climbed the last few metres to the top of Millfore I realised that the strange sensation on my face was snow. I was able to get some photos of Loch Dee and the White Lochan of Drigmorn but then the cloud started to fall, as did the temperature and much more snow. I had just finished messing about with the camera’s timer to get a photo of YT when the weather turned much worse very quickly and I decided that bottling it was the appropriate response. I stuffed the camera in my bag and headed down quickly, going eastwards to avoid the crags I had recently climbed.
Millfore means cold hill (Meall Fuar), and it certainly was. And I have to mention the White Lochan of Drigmorn again. Apparently this was a favourite spot for curling in bygone days. I take my hat off to those who would toil all the way up there to curl. I used to moan about driving to Lockerbie for curling. I presume they chose stones when they got up there rather than carting stones up with them.
My hopes of finding a more obvious path down were not to be fulfilled. The easier descents always led off towards Munwhul. That would be an extra mile or more on forest track, but I was wary that the ground might turn out to be just as bad so I stuck to returning the way I had come.
Once the forestry track was in view my spirits lifted and perhaps that’s why I wasn’t paying enough attention to prevent me dunking my foot again.
Once back on the track the rest of the walk was a breeze, mostly downhill. in fact on the way up I felt it was all uphill, but going back down there were some uphill sections. There is a shortcut from above the Black Loch which avoids walking all the way around the loch but requires fording the Tonderghie burn. I thought a fall in the burn would spoil the day so chose the longer route. The eye was better lit in the evening sun so more photos were required.
The rain didn’t start to fall until I was in the car.
Donald count = 1
Wet foot count = 1
Bitten tongue count = 1
Feeling of achievement = hell yeah
PS despite driving along the Queensway several times I had not noticed the old heather covered bridge next to the modern road bridge (see gallery). The Black Water of Dee looked black, as did the Black Loch for that matter, and from up on the hills Cairnsmore of Dee lived up to its alternate name of Black Craig of Dee. I got on photo where it just looks like a black lump, but by the time I climbed higher for a better picture, it was lost in cloud.
