Windy White Coomb

[jgregor]

We arrived at the National Trust for Scotland car park for the Grey Mare's Tail falls at the back of 9am. We crossed the Tail Burn to begin our ascent.

First sight of the falls

The way was steep as we drew towards the falls, but well made and the going was fairly straight-forward.

From the top of the main falls there was a good view back to the car park, and the lower path on the other side of the burn. We could see a barrier was blocking that lower path near the foot of the falls. Scanning further along the reason looked to be that the path beyond the barrier had been swept away by a land slide.

Looking down from high up the falls

On the other side of the falls could be seen dare-devil sheep grazing the precipitous slopes. A scar running parallel to the falls I first took to be a very dangerous looking path. On closer inspection it appears to be a fissure in the rock itself, giving the impression that it may some day split off completely and go crashing down the falls.

Sheep, fissure and falls

Smaller falls further up

Once above the top of the falls the path levels off to a gentle slope, and continues to follow the burn.

All of a sudden we crested a gentle rise and Loch Skene lay before us. A surprising sight even when expecting it, having just climbed almost 300m from the valley below.

Loch Skene, with Loch Craig towering above it to the right

From here we doubled back a short way and then turned east and then north past Hogg's Well to join the fence and path heading up Loch Craig.

Hogg's Well, with Loch Skene a short distance beyond

It was extremely boggy here, and a detour around the worst bits was in order. Even so, two of the three of us ended up with a wet foot each, having gone over the top of the boots in deep mud which had looked solid enough.

Bog

As we climbed Loch Craig we were afforded excellent views of the loch.

View of Loch Skene from part way up Loch Craig

As the path reached near the summit, the loch was lost from view, and the north wind really picked up. Since the highest point of Lock Craig Head was close by I decided to make the detour to visit it. Reaching a flattened pile of stones I assumed was it, the wind was at its fiercest - around 20 mph had been forecast, but this felt like a much stronger gust. Not pausing for a second I turned to walk back to the main path and was almost blown there instead.

We continued to follow the wall down the other side of Loch Craig to Talla Nick. Around here the springs that form the Talla Water rise and flow north towards Talla Reservoir a few miles away. Lock Skene was once again visible. Here we took rest and a spot of lunch, sitting against the wall in the lee of the wind.

View from Talla Nick

Continuing on from Talla Nick we climbed up to Firthybrig Head. From here there had been a plan to make a detour to Molls Cleuch Dod, a Donald a km or so NW. However, everyone was feeling too wind-swept and chilly to bother, so we abandoned that idea and followed the path SSW instead. We made good time along the high ground along to Firthhope Rig, then turned east-ish towards White Coomb, our target Corbett.

View from the col between Firthhope Rig and White Coomb, looking SW towards Raven Craig and Rotton Bottom(!)

Looking back over Loch Craig and the Borders hills to the north and east

When a gate was reached in the fence, we turned towards the south and up the short distance to the cairn at the summit of White Coomb.

View from White Coomb cairn: SE

View from White Coomb cairn: SW towards the Solway Firth

From here looked like there was a spot even higher about 100m to the south-west. So we traipsed over to it just to be sure. This is marked on the map as another cairn. It must be much older, as it's just a low grassy mound now. And looking back to the main cairn, it now looked the higher of the two! Well, whichever it was, we bagged it!

View back to the "modern" cairn, which I assume to be the "modern" summit!

It was worth visiting the old cairn, as the views west were better.

View from the old cairn: NW

View from the old cairn: North

We started our descent NE, heading back to the path by an old dyke.

The path down

Coming down the eastern side of White Coomb, Loch Skene and Hogg's Well came back into view. The bog on the far side of it is visible too, even from here!

Loch Skene from White Coomb

We wended our way carefully down through the slippery rocks of Rough Craigs. Once down, we decided against following the path up Upper Tarnberry and instead elected to cut across the heather back to the Tail Burn further upstream than the path would lead us.

The flatter ground over to the Tail Burn where it starts it's decent from Lock Skene

This turned out to be harder going that we had thought, with various boggy bits and hidden streams. Still, we made it to the Tail Burn, and followed it downstream for a bit looking for a likely place to cross without getting wet feet. We found such a place just below one of the higher falls, where a rock jutting out into the burn meant there was a short leap over the white water to the other side.

From here we scrambled up the steep bank on the other side and regained the path back down the side of the falls to the starting point.

View down to the car parks - which were much busier than when we set off - and along the valley of the Moffat Water