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I started this walk on the minor road to the south of Clatteringshaws Loch. There's a good parking spot just before crossing the Pulran Burn.
- Clatteringshaws Loch from the car park
My route started off by following good forest roads past the quarry, and onward for around 1.5 miles to reach the track end just to the north of Lillie's Loch.
- Early sun on Craignell
My last few walks on the Galloway subs had me battling through trees to reach the open hillside. Usually easy along the forest tracks, but often few good access points to climb up above the tree line. So this time I was looking for a simple easy way to access the hillside of Craignell.
So from other walk reports I reckoned the forest ride marked on the map from the track end near Lillie's Loch, was just what I was looking for. It's marked as a track for a short distance on the OS map, and this is still the case, though it's likely to become overgrown as the years pass by, as it's now largely disused, other than the occasional walker.
It leads all the way easily to the forest edge at the foot of the hill, with the second half now being a grassy path.
- Looking to the route of my ascent...the grassy slopes heading uphill at an angle towards the left end of the hill
This is where the hard work begins.
I first headed straight up the hill along the same line as the forest ride. On my approach to the hill I could see a mainly grassy slope heading upward, then along a sort of ramp leading to the southwest end of the ridge. This would be longer than just heading straight up to the summit, but the angle of ascent looked much easier and less rough as it was mainly grass, anywhere else was thick heather.
- Low Craignell and Cairnsmore of Dee from near the start of the climb
- Not too bad to start with, even traces of a path
- Getting steeper now
The climb was initially very steep, but on reaching the "ramp", it turned into a great little walk, there was even a good path to follow. This easily took me along and up the hillside, giving some superb views.
- Cairnsmore of Fleet
- View back down to Lillie's Loch with Fell of Fleet in background...you can see the break in the trees which I followed in the bottom left
- Low Craignell, Clatteringshaws Loch and Cairnsmore of Dee
- Good walking along a nice little path now
Once near the high point of the path, it was a case of turning right and heading up onto the ridge. Steep at first, but not for long, and the summit cairn soon came into sight.
I spent a bit of time looking around the summit plateau, the high point is a bit further along from the cairn. It's a remote, wild looking landscape, with a number of lovely blue lochans along the summit. A beautiful place to be on such a nice day.
- The cloud covered Rhinns of Kells from Craignell
- Cairnsmore of Fleet
- Low Craignell, Clatteringshaws Loch and Cairnsmore of Dee
- Clatteringshaws Loch and Cairnsmore of Dee from infinity pool
- View towards Fell of Fleet
- Millfore and Cairngarroch
- Cairngarroch and toward the Rhinns of Kells
- Rhinns of Kells and Darnaw
- Low Craignell, Clatteringshaws Loch and Cairnsmore of Dee
