Cairnsmore of Carsphairn - Photo Gallery

Whilst staying in Whithorn I took the opportunity of a good weather forecast to climb one of the Corbetts of the Galloway Hills. It was -5C when I arrived at Carsphairn, parking near the grandly named Green Well of Scotland at Bridge End a kilometre north of Carsphairn itself. I first walked along the small road to Holm of Daltallochan to visit a stone circle and burial cairn that I had seen marked on the map, was it just the frost and sunshine that made it seem a special place?

I walked up the track by the side of a house, something called The Green Well of Scotland is marked on the map here but all I could see was a small derelict bridge only big enough for a horse drawn cart and a small pond. Again it may have been the morning sun and the brightness of the frost but the pond seemed to the only thing that could be The Green Well of Scotland.

I continued to walk along the track by the side of Water of Deugh passing through a field of furtive looking cattle, why do they look at you so suspiciously, maybe the numbered tags on their ears are a clue as to their destiny. The cows with their calves of course stood their ground in the middle of the track so it was a good job that the mire either side of the track was well and truly frozen. At the far end of the cattle pasture I went through a gate to where the footbridge marked on the map seems to have collapsed. If there had been much more water in the stream I would have had trouble getting across it.

Further along the track I came to another wall with a gate but didn't go through it, I walked across the boggy field towards a small conifer plantation, again it was a good job the ground was mostly frozen. At the far end of the wall was a gate that opened by sliding it to one side before pushing it open enough for me to squeeze through. My guidebook described the going now as “rough pasture”, the word marsh should have formed part of that description and again I was glad that most of it was frozen. I was heading towards the first small hill called Willieanna, first of all I had to navigate to the place where there was a gate in the wall if I wasn't going to have to climb it.

This gradient of this rough pasture wasn't to steep but the long grass and marshy areas made it quite strenuous to get through. There is a wall that runs all the way across the front of Willieanna and I was pleased that I got to the exact position of the one gate, climbing the wall might not have been possible as I found out later. The pathless climb upwards wasn't as rough as the pasture but it was steep enough over long enough grass. It was a wonderful day for walking, bright sunshine and it didn't feel too cold, the views of the surrounding hills were lovely – unique to this place.

Eventually at the top of Willieanna I joined the wall that runs all the way over it, it was here I noticed just how fragile the wall looked, I could see daylight through lots of holes in it. The route now was impossible to lose, the wall ran all the way to the summit of the next hill, Dunool. First though was a steep descent to a col where an unlikely wooden gate was fastened shut and it was easier to climb it there than try and climb the fence with boggy ground either side of it.

The climb up Dunool was another slog and quite a lot longer but the grass was getting shorter, sheep country instead of cattle pasture. Almost at the summit a ladder stile allowed me to climb over the fragile looking wall. The gradient was easier now and Cairnsmore of Carsphairn came into view; curiously an apparent summit cairn lies on the other side of the wall. The gradient is much easier for a while, walking towards Black Shoulder over rough moorland with the occasional boggy depression that looked as though they may have been lochans at one time.

Then the gradient increases, still walking by the side of the wall, up to the top of Black Shoulder where the wall suddenly stopped. To my surprise I met a couple of other walkers here who had climbed up from Carsphairn itself. The walking is easy now, typical of the Galloway Hills and also typical was the fact that the mist came in as I got to the summit and was walking over to a viewpoint cairn. I walked back to the triangulation column at the summit; another wall now will lead me on my descent. The only snow that I saw all day was in the lee of the wall, it would have been fairly well covered not too long ago.

The initial part of the descent was through boulders and a few metres away from the wall was a cairn whose only function seemed to be to mark the position of a strangely shaped or hollowed out rock at the top of another pile of stones. As I got lower towards the end of the wall the ground became extremely marshy, the water was flowing just too much for the ground to freeze. Fortunately the boggy ground wasn't too extensive and I found the start of track to take me back to my starting point, it was still sunny and still below freezing.

Andy Wallace 4th January 2006