Merrick Christmas - Photo Gallery

I thought I would take advantage of the Galloway hills whilst visiting my parents in Whithorn, the closest Corbett to them being The Merrick. It took about an hour to get to Loch Trool, leaving the car at the highest car park close to Bruce's Stone.

At least the starting point wasn't in any doubt, a signpost for The Merrick Climb was obvious enough even for me. The path is rough and wet, probably the most awkward part of the walk, as you climb gently along the banks of Buchan Burn before taking a higher path where the edge of the forest keeps you company. As the path enters the forest it becomes easy to walk on, a pleasant walk if you like walking through forests although it isn't too dark in spite of the tall conifers.

Is every abandoned building a bothy? If so then there is a bothy as you come to a clearing named Culsharg on the map and the path takes a deliberate turn half left for a reasonably strenuous climb on a forest path through the trees. As I left the shelter of the trees when I got to the open hillside there was an obvious and considerable drop in temperature. Small patches of snow had already begun to appear and the way upwards was into the mist.

The path was fairly obvious especially as the amount of snow on the ground increased and water that had made use of the path to get downhill had frozen over. The ground was very wet, it obviously wasn't cold enough for the hillside to freeze. It made harder work of the walking as I sank upto my ankles with each step or stepped through the long grass when avoiding the worst of the wet.

Then as you reach a fence with a kissing gate the flat ground became very wet and has been trampled into a wide area of mud and water. Shortly afterwards the ground did get a bit less wet and I came to the wall that was to guide me almost all the way the the summit of The Merrick.

This is easy navigating, just as well given the covering of snow and the thickness of the mist, not much photography going on today. The ground gets a bit steeper as you climb to the summit of Benyellary, the tumulus sized cairn marking the highest point. The breeze stiffened noticeably here and it started to snow, the thought crossed my mind that I might need to turn back but as long as I had the wall to follow I always knew where I was.

The wall makes a left turn at this stage along a ridge named Neive of the Spit and the path follows the edge of a steep drop. The strength of the wind and the potential for slipping on the snowy surface persuaded me to stay close to the wall. There is another boggy area where you have to hang on to the remains of the wall to stay out of the mud but the walking is generally easy.

As the path leaves the wall on its way to The Merrick I took a bearing just in case the path fizzled out which of course it did. Walking in a north easterly direction, by the time the faint path finally disappeared the summit of The Merrick would have been visible on a clear day. I had intended taking another route downwards but the conditions were wrong for exploring a strange mountain so I set off to descend by my route of ascent.

As I got to the place where the path leaves the wall near the base of Benyellary the mist cleared and the sun started to shine. I got a couple of consolation photos of the snowy top of the Benyellary, Buchan Hill my intended route of descent and was now bathed in sunshine.

Merrick Christmas!

Andy Wallace 27th December 2003