Drow 'n' Smirr

7.4 miles 3h 45m 690m ascent

This started as a clear, blue skied slightly frosty day. It seemed ideal for walking. The field with cows that two months earlier had been a quagmire of mud and excrement was now frozen. Unfortunately the paths were also frozen further up. Indeed it looked as though they had flooded and then frozen. Once off the paths and on open fields the going was easier. I had left the path just past a gate, and headed up Willieanna to join the dyke. There is quite a drop between Willieanna and Dunool and the descent is much steeper than the OS contours would have you believe. It would probably be easier to continue along the path to the west of Willieanna and head directly up Dunool.

Frozen path looking down to the Water of Deugh

The ridge across to Cairnsmore was covered in light snow and visibility slightly poor but not dangerously so. The drystone dyke ends at Black Shoulder and compass was required to find the right direction. There were some footprints in the snow, but heading in the opposite direction. Eventually the large cairn at the summit of Cairnsmore of Carsphairn loomed out of the mist.

The trig point on Cairnsmore of Carsphairn

There is another dyke to guide the descent. The photo above is the view as I came out of the cloud; Dunool is on the left. There is a small burn to cross at the bottom then it’s only a few metres to the path. Unfortunately the path was very icy and there were three areas where it had flooded then frozen, but with thin ice overlying the icy water. I had to climb around these.

Fording the Benloch Burn on the way up, and down, proved tricky because the stepping stones were slippy with ice. After this walk I was in no doubt that my boots were no longer waterproof.

Icicles on the slopes of Dunool

This was a difficult walk because the errant border terrier Leo chose to do a runner and could not be found. As you will see from the photos, it was a beautiful day for walking.

The picture above is the Green Well of Scotland at the start of the walk and just beyond there we walked through a quagmire of mud in a field of cows. That was followed by a fording of the burn which though not in full flood was far from empty. Luckily another walker lent me his walking pole so I could stabilise myself on the slippy stones. Once I was away from livestock I let the dogs off their leads and both ran off into the bracken. Sweep came back when called and Leo disappeared from view. I hung about for about an hour then walked further up to see if he had rejoined the path later on. But no luck. Expeditions down to the burn through rather unpleasant wet and deep bracken was also to no avail. When the light started to fade I was forced to leave. I asked a local farmer to let us know if she saw him.

We went back that evening but could not get far in the dark. Next day Lynn went back and there was Leo following a walker off the hill. I had thought he was lost so that was a great relief.