With Ruth and Josh taking a trip to Madeira, my regular Easter break in the Highlands was a solo one this year. Nevertheless, I used her house as a convenient overnight stopping point on the Wednesday night. That left only a two hour drive to the foot of Thursday’s objective, Queensberry, the southernmost of the Lowther Hills.
I parked by the remote farm at Mitchellslack and soon set off up the track beside Capel Burn. Once I reached ‘The Law’, I followed smaller paths and trods up onto High Church and Wee Queensberry, surprisingly topped with a trig point while the main summit is not. A couple more kilometres of steady ascent brought me to Queesnberry itself, my first Graham of the trip. It was pretty windy but the huge cairn gave reasonable shelter as I had a snack break. You could see the Lakeland fells in the distance to the south.
I had decided to pick up a couple of extra Donalds by continuing around the Capel Burn horseshoe. The ridge to Penbreck gave easy grassy walking, followed by a steeper descent and re-ascent to Earncraig Hill. From there, there were decent paths all the way to Gana Hill, a very windy spot. A bigger track made the descent back to Capel Burn quick and easy, with a helpful footbridge to aid the crossing below The Law again.
It was about half an hour’s drive to Moffat, where I had booked in for two nights at the campsite. Despite the wet spring, the grass was not at all waterlogged and was good even for driving and parking next to the tent. I strolled into town to pick up some provisions at the Co-op, then had a pleasant evening making tea, dinner, and more tea in the warm sunshine before sunset.
For Good Friday, I chose to climb the nearest Grahams to Moffat – three hills around the head of the Ettrick valley but more conveniently accessed from Moffat Dale. I parked at Sailfoot, where a convenient parking area has been made for walkers just over the bridge. Capel Fell was my first objective, easily reached by following the zigzagging forest tracks along Sailfoot Law then ATV tracks right up to the summit. There were lovely views north to the Corbetts of Hart Fell and White Coomb, looking good in the sunshine.
I followed the easy undulating ridge over White Shank then dropped down the track to Potburn and passed by the bothy at Over Phawhope – apparently quite busy with a few visitors milling around and a couple of tents set up outside. From there, a good track led me up beside the Entertrona Burn, followed by a rougher climb up steep grass onto the next Graham, Ettrick Pen. Not the most remarkable summit but the views south over the forests to the distant Lake District hills were interesting.
The ridge to Croft Head took me over a selection of Donalds and Donald Tops, turning right at the trig point on Loch Fell to drop down to the Southern Upland Way and climb steeply back up the final hill of the day. Two ladies dressed festively in bunny ears were just leaving the summit of Croft Head as I arrived! I wished them a Happy Easter but they didn’t seem to want to chat – I guess they had just finished their own break. They were to be the only two other walkers I would see on the hill for the entire six day trip!
It was an easy descent back to Selcoth and Sailfoot, marred only by squashing my fingertip quite painfully in a highly-sprung gate latch (badly bruised but not breaking the skin). After the short drive back to Moffat and refuelling stops at Gulf and Co-op, I enjoyed another evening cooking, eating and drinking at the picnic bench in the sunshine!
I got an early start on Saturday, up around 6am to have breakfast and break camp soon after 7am. My next destination was Dunoon, and I had decided to call in at Greenock parkrun on the way. I arrived in Greenock around 8:30, which gave plenty of time to pick up ferry tickets at the Co-op before heading to the esplanade for parkrun (a 9:30 start, as usual in Scotland). It was an attractive course, twice up and down the seafront, with good views over the Firth of Clyde. My improving form continued and my time of 19:22 was my fastest parkrun since January 2020. Still only good enough for 11th place out of 115 though, thanks to a strong contingent from the local running club. I didn’t hang around long after the finish, and managed to drive to Gourock in time to catch the 10:10 ferry with a few minutes to spare.
Making the most of the sunny day, I picked out a pair of Grahams to visit in the afternoon above Glen Lean. Starting at Corrachaive, I followed tracks up through the forest that, as described in the guidebooks, led further than shown on the map and brought me without difficulty to the top edge of the dense conifers. The ridge up to the summit of Cruach nan Capull was quite tussocky, but only a short climb, rewarded by views east over the Firth of Clyde and south over Bute to the Arran hills.
I had a late lunch in the shelter of a small crag, then returned northwest along the ridge to pass over Mid Hill. Once across the very boggy bealach, I and ascended fairly easily beside Cruach Neuran Burn to the hill of that name, recently promoted to be a Graham following the drop in the qualifying height to 600m rather than 2000ft. I descended by the same route, except that I struggled to find the top part of the track through the forest (even though I was certain I had left the open ground at the correct point) and ended up blundering downhill in the right general direction to pick up the path a couple of zigzags lower! It had not seemed so indistinct in ascent!
I drove back to Dunoon and checked into my Airbnb for the next three nights, a fairly luxurious second-floor one-bedroom flat with great views over the loch. I popped down to Morrisons for groceries then had a relaxing evening planning routes for the next few days and watching the ferries go back and forth.
Sunday was another bright day, although not as sunny as the previous three. I opted for the biggest available walk, visiting the Grahams of Beinn Mhor and Beinn Bheag, on the west side of Loch Eck. A few miles’ drive brought me to my starting point at Benmore Botanic Gardens. Good tracks and paths led most of the way from there steeply up onto the minor top of A’ Chruach. Then the gradient was easier for the continuation over the rocky tops of Cruachan Beag and Cruachan Mor, with increasingly impressive views of Clach Bheinn, an eastern spur of the main ridge. I followed the guidebook’s recommendation to include it in my itinerary and was rewarded with great views along the loch, particularly north towards Beinn Bheula (Corbett).
Once I’d returned to the main ridge, it was a long and gentle climb, with a helpful tailwind, all the way to the summit of Beinn Mhor, only 741m but my highest of the trip! Very strong gusts around the summit prevented me from pausing there, but I found good shelter for lunch on the descent of the impressive northeast ridge, which has several large rocky buttresses on the right hand side.
Once across the bealach, it was a fairly steep, mostly pathless climb back up the other side to Beinn Bheag via a couple of minor tops. This was another great viewpoint, particularly over the loch towards Beinn Ruadh, which I had selected as my destination for the following day. I returned to the bealach by roughly the same route (contouring around the tops) then followed rough trods down Bernice Glen to reach the forestry tracks. Once down by the shore of Loch Eck, it was an easy flat walk of about 7km back to the car.
Monday was greyer, with showers forecast, so I had chosen a shorter walk and had a more leisurely start. Still, it was quite sunny when I set off from my parking spot by the lane above Whistlefield, and I got up to the summit of Sligrachan Hill, via its East Top, in sunny spells. It’s clearly a more popular place than I expected, as there were lots of traces of path, and both these tops, and a few minor ones on the way down to the bealach, had cairns. I enjoyed the views ahead to Beinn Ruadh, and back across Loch Eck to the previous day’s hills.
As I made my way along the ridge, a light shower passed over, but the unexpected bonus was a rainbow over the loch. The ridge gave easy walking, mostly on obvious paths, past a small lochan then up to the windy summit. I paused in a sheltered spot on the way back down, and another passing shower created an even better rainbow to enjoy while I ate my lunch.
By the time I was back in the forest, it had been dry for long enough that my waterproofs had dried so I took them off. Typically, another shower passed shortly afterwards, but I managed to wait it out under some dense tree foliage, and avoid getting back to the car with wet gear.
By the late afternoon it had become sunny, so I popped out again for a stroll along the Kirn seafront, past Hafton Castle and up to Lazaretto Point and back.
Tuesday was the last day of the trip. I packed up and checked out by around 8:30am, and headed back to Glen Lean for my morning walk, up another newly-promoted Graham, Sgorach Mor. Again, the guidebooks helped me find the best route up through the forests of the lower slopes onto the open ground of the ridge. Again, my ascent was in the dry, only for a couple of heavy showers to pass over on the descent. The summit itself was the most interesting feature, being a large knoll defended on three sides by crags.
I was up and down in two and a half hours, and drove back to Dunoon to catch the ferry. The first was full though, so I had to wait an extra 20 minutes for the next. Thereafter, the drive back as far as Ruth’s was easy, with quiet roads and dry weather. After dinner, and a good chat about her trip to Madeira, I continued back to Derby, enduring strong winds and heavy rain most of the way but getting there without incident.
Overall, a productive trip, ticking off 10 Grahams, and one with mostly good weather. The Cowal peninsula proved to be a very scenic new area to explore, with good sea views from the hills despite their more modest height. I expect my next Scottish trip, at the end of May, will have more of a mix with larger hills, so it was good to get some efficient bagging done this time!
My full photo album can be viewed here, and maps of my routes at the following links:
David Pettit's photo blog 