Buchan to Bennan - Photo Gallery

It was a sunny morning when I reached the Bruce's Stone car park near Loch Trool, but there were still clouds covering the tops. From the car park, I carried on along the track that winds down to a bridge crossing Buchan Burn, just below its impressive waterfalls. Just past the bridge there was a 3-way signpost; there were two good tracks to follow and the direction to Buchan Burn involved crossing the wire fence, but without the help of a stile. The step over the fence wasn't helped by having to step on to a big greasy boulder, but at least there was no barbed wire to get over.

The first bit of the climb was up a wet, grassy slope; I made a slight diversion on an even wetter descent for a view of the splendid waterfalls in an ancient craggy gorge. I was inspired enough to make a short movie of the fast-flowing torrent. It was straightforwardly onwards and upwards, a typical Galloway grassy slope, wet in places and a vague path that regularly disappeared; and when I got to the fence there was no stile again.

I was enjoying the walk, the conditions and the view, when I heard what I thought was a bird; I looked around to see what it was, expecting to see a crow but it was a Billy Goat. He had huge horns and was standing on a prominent rocky crag, just what you expect a mountain goat to be like. As I carried on up the hill I was looking ahead, and had worked out my route around the left hand side of the crags of Black Gairy, until I saw the cattle ahead. The Galloway cattle are perfectly happy on the hills but they do have a habit of lying across the footpaths; I would rather not get too close to cattle, and avoided them by traversing some soggy ground and walking up the ridge on the other side of the crags.

I could see deer up the slope in the distance and there were plenty of sheep further uphill; it's unusual to see so many different grazing animals on the hills, but there is plenty of grass to support them all. I could have made an easy walk around the gently rising ridge, but decided to take a more direct route; it was quite a steep climb, proper scrambling on all-fours to get up the wet, grassy and occasionally bouldery slope up to the summit plateau. There was a great view down to Loch Trool before I had a straightforward walk up to the summit of Buchan Hill; it was still sunny, but the strong breeze was very cool.

I had a lovely walk along the undulating ridge, with good views of the hills and the many irregularly shaped lochs; my visits to this part of the world are usually without any visibility so it was good to see it for once. I descended from Buchan Hill to a lovely sunny col before a steep walk up onto another fine ridge, and onwards to the summit of Craignine; at a convenient point, I dropped down to wall, and walked up almost to the banks of Loch Enoch.

I started the ascent of Merrick as a steep, rugged climb on grass between boulders; I'm sure it was more interesting than the route taken by the walkers I met on Buchan Hill, they obviously had some local knowledge about the most efficient route. After the strenuous climb I reached more grassy slopes, an easier gradient at first, then a long steep haul up to the summit plateau and triangulation column at the summit of Merrick.

It was a straightforward descent on a faint, but obvious, path across the col with the heroic name of “Neive of the Spit”, followed by an easy climb up by the side of a wall. At the highest part of the wall I turned left to walk across to the large cairn marking the summit of Benyellary, and a short walk took me to the edge of a steep drop for a different view of the local lochs. The descent continued by the side of the wall, on an irregular but obvious path; as the path bears left on the “usual” route back to Loch Trool, I carried on ahead, still by the side of the wall. At the wall corner I followed it left to a difficult-to-open gate, that would have been a bit fragile to climb over, and walked across open grassy ground towards a prominent radio mast.

The cairn at the “summit” of Bennan is close to the Glen Trool Radio Station but there seem to be higher places on the interesting-looking ridged summit. I walked over to the ridge where gaps in the parallel rock were all filled with shallow lochans, and there were unusual holes cut in the rocks. The holes looked almost too cylindrical to be natural, but I can't imagine that many people visit that ridge, and can't think why any of them would want to make nice holes in the rock.

I walked by the side of the sharp rocky crest and tried to keep on the Loch Trool side of the wide ridge, but I drifted slightly towards the centre of the ridge, looking for signs of a path. I had headed south, but I walked too far; when I realised this I knew I had to move towards Fell of Eschoncan. It meant a strenuous traverse through a lot of Galloway heather on steep slopes until the Fell came into view, not that it got any easier; I had an awkward, steep descent through the clinging heather, and then had to battle through harvested forest.

I finally reached level ground, and I was almost at a forest track, but I couldn't relax yet; the ground was a swamp between me and the track, I had to find the best way possible across it without getting wet or hurt. I got to the track but it was last used a while ago and then by logging vehicles so it wasn't an easy walk; as soon as I could I started to climb uphill on the faint green trods I had seen from higher up. After a short climb, I reached a cairn but it was not the summit and I could that this little hill isn't as small as it looks.

There were occasional signs of a path through the heather but generally just heather, I came across more cairns but still no obvious summit. Eventually, I reached a triangulation column at a curious position, on the edge of the summit plateau, just above a steep drop down to the valley. I finally walked over to a cairn that seemed to be the highest point, but I still wasn't convinced that it was the official summit. At last there was a green path, going steeply down to the left; each deep footstep was a mini peat bog, but it was easier than the precipitous descent I was expecting.

The path dried out as I got down to the bracken line and it still got me directly to car park; the towering crags buttressing Fell of Eschoncan were the ones I had expected to have to get down.

© Andy Wallace 24th May 2009