Drow 'n' Smirr

Romans and Reivers: 1 – Rainbows and Hares

February 20, 2016

13.7 miles 5h 1min ascent 431m

Ae to the Crooked Road

The Romans and Reivers trail is a 52 mile route following old Roman roads, forest tracks, drove roads and short sections of quiet lane through notorious Reivers country from Ae to Hawick. We have previously walked along sections of the R&R where it coincides with the SUW but this was his was our first proper R&R section. I would have worn a toga for the walk but it was too cold.

The plan was to drive a car in from the Kinnelhead Road at the north of Ae forest to the Blue Cairn, giving us an 8 mile walk, but that plan fell at the first hurdle when we found a gate barring our entrance to the forest. We were forced to leave the car there (NT041018) and have a longer walk (12.5 miles).

So we drove back to the Seven Stanes car park at Ae Forest, paid our £3, got togged up and headed off on what turned out to be the wrong track. When we got past Wood Farm and found ourselves walking away from the forest, rather than into it, we knew something was wrong and headed back. To be positive, this did allow us to warm up before the main walk, which is very important as any exercise expert will tell you. We also got to see a crashed car being lifted from the Water of Ae, which we would otherwise have missed.

After leaving the car park we should have headed left, not right, then turned right after perhaps 50m, where a sign points to “Beattock 15 miles”. Once back on the proper route, after our mile and a half warm up, we headed up a forest track and began our long walk through the forest.

I like to think of walks in stages so I know how we are getting on. For this walk I had in mind places about three miles apart: a track junction north of Brownmoor Hill; a quarry near Grey Mare; and the Blue cairn, which would have been close to the end. With the longer walk these thirds became quarters.

In the first quarter we climbed 200m, which could also be expressed as “was uphill”. We came across the first “South Scotland Countryside Trail” markers, and I’ll have to say that the route was well marked, with markers at every junction along the whole 12 miles. Quite unlike our experience of the SUW where markers seemed placed at random, often beside a trail where there was no option, but missing where one needed to chose between three ways. But perhaps that’s part of the SUW experience.

With the weather so dreich, long distance views were limited. We could see the small hills between Amisfield and Lochmaben, but little beyond that. The forestry track took us through forestry plantations in all stages from new plantings to new fell. There were stacks of logs marked “Fire Wood” and trees whose roots had lost the battle with the wind.

As ever, the edges of the conifer forests had smaller deciduous trees: holly, willow, hawthorn, and others I couldn’t identify with deep red berries. The weather, the knowledge that we had a long walk ahead of us, and the extra mile and a half we had tagged on the start put me off too much off-track exploring and examining of these trees.

A useless fence

We passed the first of several unusual fencing constructions here: a deer fence judging by its height but with openings where the gates would be, somewhat undermining the purpose of the fence I would have thought. More on unusual fences later.

The track to Lamphitt had a sign but in general there was nothing to differentiate the track junctions. By following our progress on the map, however, I was able to recognise that we had passed the one quarter mark.

Harestanes turbine

As we entered the second quarter of the walk we saw the first of the Harestanes wind turbines, and as we drew closer we could hear them, sounding like jets flying high above us. This wind farm is quite large. The Scottish Power website says there are 68 wind turbines with an output of 136 megawatts. (UK energy use in 2014 was 2449 TWh). It took us two and a quarter hours to walk through it.

Setting aside practicalities for aesthetics, these turbines are quite an eyesore, though no doubt we will grow used to them. What is unusual here in Ae is that most of the turbines stand among trees which tones down the eyesore-ness to some extent. It was almost eerie that when the wind picked up I noticed a nearby turbine stop and within a couple of minutes all the others we could see had stopped.

Oil spill kit

We saw our first (of three) yellow wheelie bins, “Oil Spill Kits”. My curiosity eventually got the better of me and I went to see what was in the bin, but it was sealed. These seemed to be placed randomly, but presumably there is some reasoning behind it.

In the wind farm the tracks are more substantial, as they would need to be to get the turbines in. Besides signs for “Turbine 11” or “Met Tower” etc. were several markers along the tracks. In this section we saw the first snow markers, further on these were joined by small underground cable markers, and later by larger yellow topped poles, warning of 132kv cables. I did think that was unnecessarily accurate.

Ae quarry lake

Where I expected a quarry near Grey Mare, marking the halfway point of the walk, we found a landscaped pond, with surrounding paths and artistically placed rocks. Presumably this was once the quarry marked on the map. Why it has landscaped into a ornamental pond in such an isolated spot, a two hour walk from the car park, I don’t know. It will be interesting to see how it matures in the next couple of years.

From the track above the pond it should be possible to see Queensberry, but its top was hidden in cloud. Only the lower Wee Queensberry could be seen, its unusual shape easily identified. i think I could make out the cairn on High Church later in the walk, when we were a bit closer.

The weather put paid to lounging about for lunch but did abate enough for us to sit on some trackside boulders while eating our sandwiches. I think we (except Eddie) needed a rest. Dark Chocolate with crunchy coffee beans ensured I didn’t flag.

Our next landmark was the Blue Cairn on Hound Rig. Reading descriptions of this cairn, I gather that the “Blue Cairn” is the mound rather than the rocky “beacon” atop it. Older sources say “It is said that Wallace, who was encamped on Queensberry having seen the approach of a party of English and hastening to attack them, had met them on this spot; a bloody battle ensued in which the English were beaten” and older OS maps are marked “Site of Battle between Wallace and Greystock and where the latter fell.”

More modern archeology however, states that the cairn (meaning the mound) is undoubtedly from the Bronze Age, and the stone cairn atop it is described as a “beacon” 3m high, of more recent ancestry. We had stood looking at the cairn thinking it didn’t look particularly blue, but we were looking at the modern stone cairn whereas the real Blue Cairn itself is buried under a mound of earth. Perhaps it was blue?

Having reached the Blue Cairn we were close to the end of our walk as originally planned, but still had 3.7 miles to go to reach the car. I think we were all flagging a bit, except for Eddie, who never stopped exploring the woods either side of the track with the energy of a pup.

Quarry

There is another massive quarry below Moannathairy at NY024992, which is where I had hoped to park originally. Unlike the other quarry, this still looks as it would have when in use. There are boulders blocking access to vehicles though, so I presume it isn’t being quarried actively at present. Perhaps it too will be landscaped?

We crossed the Lochan Burn and the Kinnel Burn on their new bridges, with the older bridges lying nearby. On a previous walk, Audrey and I had had to wade across the Lochan Burn, with me carrying a wee Eddie who was too frightened to get in the water. I did suggest we could wade across rather than using the bridge for old times sake, but Audrey didn’t seem very keen. She probably didn’t want to damage her new boots.

Lohan Burn…anyone for wading it?

By the Lochan Burn, was a Romans and Reivers stone, looking like a gravestone. It told us we were 4.5 miles from Beattock. I remembered the stone at Earshaig (not too far from where we were parked) but I couldn’t remember if it said 1.5, 2.5 or 3.5 miles to Beattock. (It is actually marked 2.5 miles to Beattock).

Kinnel Burn

After crossing Kinnel Burn the forest was giving way to moorland, or at least felled forest morphing into moorland. What looked like a cairn on a small knoll caught our eyes but I didn’t fancy the terrain separating it from us. I would have been unimpressed to spend half an hour trudging through difficult terrain to find it was a tree stump.

Moorland beyond Kinnel Burn

We passed several fenced areas by the road shaped a little like small lay-bys. I think these contained access ports for the underground cables. They were fenced off on the forest side but open on the road side which seemed rather strange.

The rain stopped and I recall hoping that the wind would dry the dogs a bit. Almost immediately the rain started again but as we trudged along the sky did show us a twinkling of blue and the sun shone enough to provide a rainbow.

Our final sight was a large hare, still in winter livery, that came out of the forest and ran along the track. Eddie missed it because he was in the trees.

(PS Audrey’s GPS said we walked 14.9 miles, but I believe my own GPS estimate of 13.7 miles.)

Posted in Dumfries & Galloway | Tagged Ae, Romans and Reivers, Winter | Comments Off

Cairn Pat

February 15, 2016

1.3 miles 30 mins ascent 75m

Cairn Pat (Marilyn)

I have often considered going up this hill when I’m across at Stranraer for work. So today was the day. No route-finding problems with this one, I parked on the verge of the A77 and walked up the track to the top, climbing a couple of gates on the way.

A lovely crisply cold day but with little wind. The steeper parts of the hill were covered with flowering gorse but I couldn’t really make out the remains of the hilltop fort that are obvious on aerial photos.

I was surprised by the views from such a lowly summit: Ailsa Craig, Arran, Ireland, Isle of Man, Galloway hills, and of course the Mull of Galloway.

[osmap gpx=”http://www.screel.co.uk/walks/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RK_gpx-_2016-02-15_1600.gpx”]

Posted in Dumfries & Galloway | Tagged Wee Hills, Winter | Comments Off

Ae short stroll and ae new word

February 13, 2016

4.6 miles 2h 5min ascent 134m

I had to delay our first Romans and Reivers walk since my cough might disturb the wildlife. This then started as a short recce of the start of that walk but we chose after a few hundred metres to give up the R&R recce and just follow the Brown Walk (with some Yellow walk at the end). We didn’t know where these routes went but presumed they would be circular, and if not we could always just turn back.

Carving on a bench at Ae

After crossing the Water of Ae at the footbridge near the carved seats we basically walked a loop on the eastern side of Green Hill. About half of this was on forestry tracks, with the remainder on forest footpaths. The route was well marked with wooden posts, and easily walked though a little steep and muddy on the downhill section. We could hear children playing when walking through the wood but we didn’t see them.

Though these forest plantations may seem a little monotonous, we weren’t bored. There was always something to keep us amused, and for once it wasn’t falling in ditches or getting soaked with rain.

Birds: were robins and blue tits mostly, with crows heard in the distance. One Robin sang for quite a while as we watched him and a a couple of wee birds defied identification.

Winter Oak

Winter Beech

Winter Larch

Trees: no surprise that there were trees aplenty, this being a forest. We saw some new plantings and noticed how very close the saplings were, then during the walk we passed by some very densely growing trees where there would be no chance of squeezing between them. Presumably these will be thinned out by the forestry.

We also passed through by very tall specimens. I had read that these are normally felled at thirty years. I counted the branch segments and had only reached twenty by a third of their height so they must be way past their felling age. The small oaks and beeches hiding below the taller conifers had retained their leaves giving a splash of gold against the evergreens. I’ve learnt this is called marcescence, so I have added a new word to my vocabulary today.

Strange fruit – Ilex verticillata

Where we left the forestry track, close to a viewpoint with a bench (Craig shields) were a couple of small trees, or perhaps large bushes, covered with red berries. These had little taste, and certainly weren’t bitter, the inner flesh being a pale yellow. I am not certain what these are and initially thought they might be Cotoneaster. Audrey has these in her garden though and is sure they are not. The closest in appearance I can find on-line is Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), but that isn’t a native plant, so these would have to be escapees. I am writing this now so they can’t be particularly poisonous.

We passed the plough collection again and I noticed a carved squirrel that had escaped my gaze the last time I was here. As you can see, one might easily miss it.

The next visit should be as part of the Romans and Reivers walk.

[osmap gpx=”http://www.screel.co.uk/walks/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RK_gpx-_2016-02-13_1021.gpx”]

Posted in Dumfries & Galloway | Tagged Ae | Comments Off

Barefoot

January 5, 2016

One of my walking goals this year is to walk a league barefoot. I had to choose some distance and a league seemed just about right. I’ve walked on beaches and lawns but those are not the same thing. My first half mile of wild barefoot walking was this week at Kirkconnell Flow. Luckily I didn’t meet anyone else so there was no need to explain.

It was a tad chilly being January and I had the burning feet of reperfusion for a while afterwards.

The first sensation was the coldness and I wondered at first if numbness would impair the experience. If anything though the cold seemed to heighten discomfort when I stepped on things.

Walking through a woodland barefoot opened my “eyes” to the ground beneath my feet. The ground from-which I had observed became the thing observed. My attention, which would usually be directed to trees, undergrowth, birds, clouds, sounds, and smells, became focussed on the ground’s texture. I had a better “feel” for the walk and noticed the texture of the ground more than I otherwise would.

It was much easier walking among the birches than the pines. Damn those pine cones. The mud I usually avoid stepping in was a pleasant soft mush, which in warmer weather might have been a pleasure.

Bare feet (but on a summer day)

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Winter Crabapples

January 2, 2016

6.5 miles 2h 53m 281m ascent

Ae forest – mostly red routes

carved bench, over the Ae, footpath through deciduous riverside woodland, crabapple/cherry, sour, hips and haws, winter oak and winter beech, washed away paths, excavated paths, gnarled trees, lichen not seen as a child, pond and memorial, waterfall/Dalcrum Burn and seat, old tractors, re-coloured routes, turbines/noise, cross back, Bran Burn, Capel Water, Wee Queensberry, Talking head Stane, roller coaster, red pine needle carpet, final steep descent.

This was the weekend after the big floods. The local rivers had mostly returned to their usual levels but fields were still flooded as we drove to Ae.

When I came looking for the Talking Head Stane in 2011, Andy and I walked in drizzle for most of the day, and that was a mid-summer’s day though I wouldn’t have guessed it looking back at the photos. This visit the rain was forecast but was a little late arriving so we had a rain-free walk, and though it was winter, it was surprisingly mild. No need for gloves. (Aside: perhaps it says something about the content of my writing that my spell-checker tried to correct “for gloves” to “foxgloves”).

We parked at the overflow car park to avoid the sheep in the fields near the main parking area. When last I came here these fields had been open but now have fences. A stone sign with the Romans and Reivers insignia informed us we were 15 miles from Beattock.

Carved bench at Ae

Our first photo op was a wooden bench by a bridge over the Water of Ae. The uprights of the structure are carved into giant pine cones with a variety of carved animals. The seat backs are carved with forestry vehicles.

Over the river we turned off the main cycle track to follow a footpath that headed through woodland beside the river. A forestry sign warned us that they were changing the colours of their walks (red to yellow, blue to brown). I don’t recall any signs but presume we were on the old red walk at this point.

Winter Oak

I had been expecting a rather monotonous walk in forestry conifers but this section was filled with old gnarled twisted deciduous trees. There were several trees still heavy with fruit. The first we came upon looked to be covered with unripe cherries that were very sour when tasted. Mrs Drow ‘n’ Smirr looked at the photos and has decreed these to be crabapples.

They were not at all like the crabapples I remember as a child (which were larger), but having consulted the oracle (i.e. looked at photos on the internet), and reflecting on the intense sourness, I agree they were crabapples. Why so many had persisted on the trees into January I don’t know but as we walked passed other crabapple trees with fruit as well as plenty of hips and haws.

Crabapples?

There were signs of the recent floods with the plants lying low by the riverside showing signs of having been under running water very recently. On the path there were places where the surface had been washed away revealing the rocks beneath the surface, and in one place the path had been washed away completely.

We rejoined a main track, and soon came to a collection of old ploughs with an information board “The Ploughs that changed Scotland”. I was somewhat baffled by the large “Itch Plough” until Audrey noticed the “D” partially hidden by rust. I can see how it would dig ditches.

Itch plough

A little way past the ploughs we left the main track on a footpath once more and came to a quiet pond with a seat and a memorial stone inscribed “Pause – take a deep breath. In memory Mary Boyle who died in service 17 April 1997. True ambassador of the forestry commission.” So I paused and took a breath by the pond.

memorial pond

There were many trees hung with lichen. I don’t remember seeing any lichen on trees when I was younger, which could just mean I didn’t notice it but probably reflects the difference in air quality. Another seat by the riverside looks across to a small waterfall, the Dalcrum Burn, I think. Not far from there we had our first sighting of a wind turbine, though it took a little longer before we could hear their groans.

Path eroded at the Water of Ae

After re-crossing the Water of Ae we continued along a forestry track. We slowly climbed and were able to see Wee Queensberry, though Queensberry itself was hidden in cloud. After passing Capel Water and then Bran Burn on the opposite side of the Water of Ae we left the main track to zig-zag up the hill on the red MTB route which took us up to the higher forestry track and more mature forest.

The Talking Head Stane is just beyond this mature forest, in relatively open ground. Younger trees are growing behind it and it will soon be in their shade. The head stane is a 1.5 ton sculpture made from a glacial granite boulder. It is placed looking south towards Ae village and the Solway. The stane has a carved mouth, ears and eyes and is inscribed with the translation of a Norwegian poem, Deep in the Forest, by Hans Børli.

But still it satisfies my soul to hear the spruce and wind. They speak together like sister and brother, and use such beautiful wind-wild words deep in the forest, deep in the forest.

I haven’t been able to find the whole poem, but some English translations of other poems are on this blog.

We followed a route through the young trees which descended, then climbed several times before developing a more persistently descent, this latter section being a dual carriage-way. We took the route marked for cyclists pushing their bikes uphill, which seemed a safe enough choice, presuming the other to be for those riding downhill, but didn’t see any cyclists while descending.

carpet of pine needles

We left the MTB track for an unnecessary short cut which took us steeply down, just make sure our adrenaline was used up.

Crabapples?

Hips

Haws

P.S. I think the picture above is Ilex verticillata, Winterberry rather than Hawthorn.

[osmap gpx=”http://www.screel.co.uk/walks/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/RK_gpx-_2016-01-02_1007.gpx”]

Posted in Dumfries & Galloway | Tagged 7stanes, Low Level, Paths, Winter | Comments Off

Golden Hedgehogs and a Heart of Stone

December 5, 2015

7.75 miles 3h 40m ascent 283m

Dalbeattie Forest-Moyle Hill-Heart Stane

There were severe weather warnings for heavy rain and some local fields were already flooded so I ditched the planned route for one away from major waterways and without sections across boggy ground.

As predicted it rained heavily throughout the walk. I had the OS 25k but navigating this route would be easier with a Seven Stanes MTB route map as well (which I didn’t have). So I was guided by the OS 25k, a sense of direction, a vague memory of previous visits and a hope that the force would be with me. During the walk I believed two of these had deserted me, but as it turns out we got where I meant to go, albeit not by the route I intended.

Our starting point was the Dalbeattie Town Woods car-park with its boulder installations and BBQ enabled picnic tables helpfully marked “May be HOT” for those without common sense but an ability to read. I do wonder if it should have had a drawing of a person burning their hand as well (for those unable to read or unfamiliar with English).

Dalbeattie Town Woods

We set off on the forest path through the Richorn Plantation, with conifers and some smaller beech trees retaining their golden autumn leaves. Bracken beneath the trees was still green whereas that in more open areas was in various stages of yellow and brown showing the effect of temperature in triggering autumnal changes in leaves.

The plan was to walk along to Woodhouse, which I presumed would be ruins, and then head left up a footpath/MTB track to look for the heart stane. The last visit we had walked by the Slab, a steep rocky section for fearless bikers, so if we saw signs for that we would follow them. One difficulty was that I didn’t recall the name of the Slab, but I thought if I saw its name I would remember it.

I looked at the map at the start and had in my mind that we would reach a T-junction where we would turn left and continue to the Woodhouse ruins. The T-junction was enough un-T like that it didn’t register so the next T which, should have been a right turn, we turned left. This wasn’t a big deal since the turn brought took us to a track that brought us back to the same route, albeit having walked an additional 0.5km. But it by-passed Woodhouse, our landmark. But all was well because we eventually came to a sign pointing to “Moyle Hill”.

From here onwards my sense of direction failed. Had I been a swallow heading for Africa I would have found myself wondering why the ‘sahara’ had so many icebergs. We must have been bewitched in some way by mischievous woodland sprites.

The narrow track to Moyle Hill passed through dark dense forest over rocky (firm) or soft (pools of water) terrain. The dogs enjoyed running through the trees while we chose our steps carefully. My impression was that the track had taken us left from the larger track and then turned left again, so I believed we were approaching Moyle Hill from the south. In fact we were continuing in almost the same direction as the larger track and approaching the summit from the north. Even now I can recall turning sharp left (by 90°) twice, but the GPS track shows me walking a generally straight line. Spooky. Damn those sprites.

Resting on Moyle Hill

As the sign had promised this route took us to the top of Moyle Hill. The hill top is free of trees and has a bench to rest one’s weary limbs. The views would be great in better weather (the story of many a walk) and had it not been pouring with rain I might have sat there for lunch. The trig pillar is painted white and has a plaque: The Moyle, Altitude 150m, Site of Iron Age Fort. Meaul means bald or bare and is a common name for hills free of trees. It usually takes the form Moyle in Ireland.

The fort was large and would have covered the entire hilltop. Here is Canmore’s description from 1957:

A fort measuring 930′ x 500′ formed by a ruined stone rampart c. 10′ wide drawn around the shoulder of the hill wherever possible. There are several breaks in the rampart and a probable entrance 160m from the NE corner. Within the interior are several secondary features.

In the SE corner is a ‘citadel’ measuring 120′ x 90′ defined for the most part by a scarp representing a denuded rampart, the south and west side of which almost certainly overlies the fort. This work is comparable to several of the ‘defensive enclosure’ type in southern Scotland.

I think the rampart, now buried beneath vegetation, is visible near the trig pillar and possibly across the moor, but I didn’t notice the ‘citadel’ even though we must have walked through it. More information is available at Dalbeattie Heritage – The Moyle.

Moyle Trig

Believing we had climbed the summit from the south, I believed that if we could continue in much the same direction we might find tracks leading us across to the Heart Stane. A track sneaked out across the upland moor of the hilltop. Fantastic. If there was a track, surely it would lead us to the Heart Stane? I got my compass out to confirm my inner sense of direction with the earth’s magnetic field.

The data did not compute. Inner direction sense: I am looking north (in the direction of the heart stane). Compass: I am looking south (completely the wrong direction for the heart stane). Either the compass was wrong or I was. Perhaps the compass had been demagnetised in my pocket? Audrey’s compass was in her rucksack, in the car, no doubt shaking its head or perhaps laughing at us.

Analysing the situation, unable to blame anyone else for the predicament, and with visibility too poor to see anything else for navigation, I narrowed the problem to choosing between two options: go back along the path we had climbed or carry on along it. The track must go somewhere and we had not passed any other options on the way up. So on we went across what was once a large fort and was now moorland.

When we reached relative shelter of the trees again I looked at the map. We had a steep descent and I was forced to accept that the compass was working properly. We were heading south from Moyle Hill so the new plan was to head around the eastern side of the hill and find a way up to the Heart Stane. Simple.

Difficult to believe – but true

Unfortunately we came upon a small post with a plaque pointing right to Dalbeattie, left to Colvend. No matter how I thought about it these seemed to be pointing in the wrong direction. I spent a few minutes re-tracing our route and its turns in my mind, turning this way and that for real, each time ending with “so Dalbeattie should be in that direction”, while pointing opposite to the direction indicated by the sign. I wondered, aloud, if the sign might be wrong, but Audrey pointed out that the post didn’t look to have been tampered with. Looked through my photos after getting home I labelled my picture of the sign “Lies” but having reviewed the evidence I have subsequently removed that epithet. Having said that, both directions lead to forestry tracks, both of which run between Dalbeattie and Colvend. I do accept though that if one was going to Colvend, the indicated direction would be quicker, whereas either would do for Dalbeattie.

We turned right, for Dalbeattie, and very soon reached the main forestry track exactly where we had left it when we had started up Moyle Hill. Or so we thought. It looked exactly the same. Same signpost. Same Trees. Same Track. We could even see the track we had taken when finding our way up Moyle Hill (we thought, wrongly). We believed the descending path must have curled around to bring us in a circle but were in fact over a kilometre south of that junction.

We took another woodland path which looked as though it would take us around the southern end of Moyle Hill and up its eastern side. I had some deja vu, worrying that we were taking a path we had already walked but we crossed a bridge that we hadn’t crossed before and walked through beech woods that we definitely hadn’t been through earlier.

Beech Wood

Throughout the next hour or so I had a strong sense that we were walking in circles and would glimpse sections we had been through before. To confuse us further, at one point Audrey asked me what direction I thought we were walking. I was pretty sure we had come around the southern end of Moyle Hill and were walking roughly north along its eastern edge. To confirm this I got the compass out only to find it showing us walking south. We turned about and headed back but checking again a couple of minutes later we were walking south again. The compass continued to show this so we turned back again. (I have checked the compass since and it seems to be working just fine). Later we came to the signpost for Moyle Hill summit we had passed on the way up. But again we were mistaken, fooled by everywhere looking similar.

Somewhat navigationally challenged, we pressed on through similar looking woods, and eventually came upon a Seven Stanes MTB emergency sign showing where medical help could be found. I presumed this would be close to the Slab, and indeed within a few minutes we passed a warning sign for the Slab.

Heart Cleft Stane

Our path gradually ascended and took us to the Heart Cleft Stane. When I had been here in 2011, the large granite heart had stood on a flat hilltop, but the trees have grown since then and the heart now has a backdrop of conifers. The Seven Stanes website gives this description: A mammoth piece of Dalbeattie granite has been donated by Tarmac Limited from their local quarry to make the Dalbeattie stane. It symbolises the fact that the Kirkcudbrightshire town was once the heart of the granite industry in the south of Scotland and exported stone all over the world. The inscription on the giant heart gives an indication of where the granite has been exported to over the years.

Very few of my pictures of the stone were useful, the wind and rain defeating the camera.

A bedraggled Eddie by a pond and well

Relieved that we had achieved our aims of visiting the Heart Cleft Stane and Moyle Hill we headed back to the track and headed back, taking a slightly different route to the car-park. This brought us in to the car park from the other side and otherwise we might have missed the Golden Hedgehogs.

Hedgehog Bench

There are round of granite benches (at least that’s what I think they are) and one has the inscription:

Observe which way the hedgehog builds her nest,
To front the north or south, or east or west,
For if ’tis true that common people say,
The wind will blow the quite contrary way.

Nearby a Golden Hedgehog sits atop a boulder, and another one a few metres away in a children’s playground. A very impressive playground.

Art Installation – Dalbeattie Woods

There is another installation of boulders, with metal leaves attached, joined by metal rods. Again the rain messed up the photos.
[osmap gpx=”http://www.screel.co.uk/walks/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/RK_gpx-_2015-12-05_0935.gpx”]

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Dun Garbh

November 22, 2015

1 mile 50mins

Dungarry Fort

This is an 8th century fort, or the remains of one at least, sitting on a small hill in a valley beside Bengairn. The long single track road/track from Auchencairn doesn’t have much in the way of parking places but I found a place.

I used a stone wall on the west of the fort to guide me from the track onto the hill, walked along the crest of the hill to the fort then descended directly SE to another track.

Navigation was very easy but the terrain with bog myrtle (in boggy ground), tussocks, bracken, and heather was a bit tiring, especially since I was carrying the remnants of a hangover.

For a relatively low hill it had excellent views of the Solway and the Galloway hills
[osmap gpx=”http://www.screel.co.uk/walks/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/RK_gpx-_2015-11-22_1317.gpx”]

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Cairn Edward Hill

November 14, 2015

6.4 miles 3h 50m ascent 357m

Cairn Edward Hill and Bennan Hill viewpoints

Previous to the introduction of roads or railways into the Stewartry, these moors formed part of the wild and unfrequented tracks of Galloway, and were the haunts of the Rory Gills, Billy Marshalls, Wandering Willies, rustic minstrels, and minor Robin Hoods, with which Galloway was infested.

Soon after leaving Bennan the (railway) line passes through a heavy cutting of rock, on emerging from which we see to our right a range of hills whose summits seem to reach the clouds, with deep and sullen looking glens intervening. These are Shawhills, Orchars*, Black Craig o’ Dee, and Cairn Edward, famous for its rocking-stones. (from Rambles in Galloway, M Harper, 1876.)

*I think the hill Harper is referring to here as “Orchars” is Fell of Fleet. It is a major hill that would not be missed and one part of it is now named Back Hill of Orchars.

I don’t know what drew me to this particular hill in the wild and unfrequented lands of Galloway. Perhaps it was the promise of a cairn? Or just the temptation of the wild so close to home?

Well the area isn’t as wild as it was in Harper’s day. The moors are now forests and forestry vehicles need access tracks. This allowed us to walk easily to the foot of Cairn Edward Hill, though we stepped into the wilds after that. all in all we spent 1-2 hours in the wild. We might have spent longer but the weather wasn’t conducive to lunch at the summit.

We started close to the lower Bennan viewpoint, from which incidentally very little can be seen other than trees, and walked up a footpath in the forest past a couple of benches with views across Loch Ken. The footpath took us to a forest track and from there we headed for the upper Bennan viewpoint.

Loch Ken from the footpath

This viewpoint has a couple of information boards, one showing a panoramic view with the names of hills etc. I was able to see more of Mochrum Fell from here than I had seen when walking on it, in mist, two weeks earlier. The panorama could however have been better. We could definitely see Criffel, which was not shown on the picture, whereas Screen and Bengairn were shown but were not visible from the viewpoint. It looks as though the panorama is based on a photograph taken from a little further south.

Cairn Edward Hill seen from the track near Bennan

The plan had been to return from the viewpoint and then loop south of Bennan before turning north for the Lowran Glen (which must once have been a glen of Leamhraidhean,
Elm, trees). But a faint track led on beyond the viewpoint and I wondered if it might join up with the track 300m away. The temptation of exploration trumped the existing plan.

Unfortunately the faint track became ever fainter and drifted gradually downhill. Since the track we were hoping to meet was at about the same elevation as the viewpoint, this didn’t bode well. We turned back after about 5 minutes and climbed back up the the viewpoint.

Terrain by the track

Back on our planned route we walked along the western side of Bennan, up the Lowran Glen and along the track heading towards Cairn Edward Hill. This track is built up on about a metre of rocks suggesting that the ground is very boggy. There were pools of green topped water amongst the mature trees to our left and to our right a combination of moorland and younger trees. The sound of splashing when the dogs went exploring told us that there were pools hidden by the grasses there as well.

The plan was to follow a forest break up from where the path ended. But the forest break obvious on aerial photos was not so easily seen from the ground and when we did find it, it was guarded by fallen trees, boggy tussocks and slippery moss. Once over the initial natural defences we had mostly tussocks, hidden holes and bog to contend with.

Terrain

Climbing the forest break we also had to contend with three rock outcrops (baby cliffs) which were beyond climbing for the dogs, and to be honest for me too. The first we managed to zig-zag a way up but the second outcropping was much larger and forced us into the forest itself to find a way around it.

Once in the trees the trees and terrain caused us to gradually drift away from the forest break and eventually we met a much more imposing outcropping. I took photos of this to show how imposing it looked but as is often the case when trying to show how steep something is, the photos don’t look impressive at all.

But it was clearly not something we could just walk straight up. We did though manage to find a way avoiding the larger drops with only a couple of sections requiring hands. The friable muddy ground didn’t help in using footholds.

Granite pavements

From there we were on the hill proper which has granite “pavements” offering firm footing, albeit with slippery moss and at angles other than flat, competing with deep tussocks on a base of waterlogged mud and water filled holes. Viewed from a distance we would have appeared to be walking like a drunk as we stumbled about, not helped by the dogs running about our feet.

ex-Fire Tower

Unfortunately we still had some trees between us and the summit and there was not any obvious break to use so we had to wind our way through the trees. Eventually we stepped out into a clearing with a collapsed fire tower, an upright cairn and a white-painted trig pillar.

Cairn Edward

From Cairn Edward Hill we had views of Loch Skerrow and Stroan Loch. I thought there was flooding to the SW but that was because I had mistaken Woodall Loch for Loch Ken and the “flooding” was in fact the southern section of Loch Ken.

Heading down my main worry was that we didn’t blunder over the drops at the outcrops. With this in mind we decided to try and flank the largest outcrop, and this took us past the forest break we had used as our guide on the way up. We floundered across more tussocks and into the forest where the going was much easier. We could see what we were standing on and the main difficulty was avoiding being poked in the eye by a branch.

Easy going in Cairn Edward forest

We did overshoot a little and eventually reached the forest track about a 150m from its end, but the going underfoot was much easier among the trees than it had been in the break.

Just for the fun of it we took another track back towards the car park.
[osmap gpx=”http://www.screel.co.uk/walks/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/RK_gpx-_2015-11-14_1010.gpx”]

Eddie and Sweep relax after the walk

Posted in Dumfries & Galloway | Tagged Wee Hills | Comments Off