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Early April saw us take a frosty wander up Shalloch on Minnoch, on to Tarfessock and back, and it's then we decided we'd walk the Awful Hand in May. But a window of good weather on 23rd April shunted that forward.
I'm glad we'd popped up there those few weeks before though, because that earlier wander afforded us golden plover, larks and - we're pretty sure - hare prints in the thin layer of snow.
009 Golden plovers
018 Two larks
027 Sitting hareNo white stuff at all this time, but a good clear day meant we could see the Straiton Monument from the Stinchar road and the moorland below was looking peachy.
001 Straiton Monument from Stinchar Bridge road
004 Morning walk 7-30 am We were soon up at the Shalloch on Minnoch trig and on to its unmarked summit.
005 SonM trig and sky
008 SonM top with friends The first of two little groups of deer ran below us and headed off sure-footed round the steep Tarfessock flank.
010 Red deer - first group - below SonM
011 Same group
012 Same sure-footed deer on steep flank We followed above, dropping down off Shalloch on Minnoch and rising up to the Tarfessock cairn, to the sound of larks all around, the occasional raven and distant black grouse.
013 Tarfessock top with friends The view ahead from here is fine - I've photographed it so often I didn't bother on this occasion, so here's one from earlier in April.
049 People on Awful Hand for scale Glancing back as we descended, to a bright Loch Macaterick, our next top was Kirriereoch, which I've not set foot on before. I think you could walk all the way round to the right and up its broad shoulder, but after enjoying the flat shelf of Carmaddie Brae (nice name), we took a scramble up the steep rocky, heathery crag ahead of us.
015 Erratic and Loch Macaterick
016 Balminnoch Loch on Carmaddie Brae a la 1992
014 Kirriereoch ahead with scrambling
017 Carmaddie Brae with Kirriereoch behind
019 Tunskeen from Carmaddie Brae (Tunskeen of 21st-birthday-in-bothy-without-a-roof memory)
020 Euan with Tarfessock and SonM behind
023 Steep climb up Kirriereoch
024 Steep climb up Kirriereoch More deer appeared below, which I pointed out to Euan only
after he'd scrambled over an awkward vertical rock
025 More deerAs we popped out at the top, we were met with a meadowy scene before us, with cairn plonked on top followed by another unmarked summit, this one revealing lovely Loch Enoch beyond.
027 Kirriereoch cairn after the scramble
028 Loch Enoch from Kirriereoch top This walk also meant it was my first view of the Merrick's more interesting side, and I was duly impressed!
029 Merrick Black Gairy from north
032 Merrick Black Gairy better In better light, this could rival many a highland vista.
033 Loch Enoch Merrick pano
036 Eglin LaneAs we descended Kirriereoch and looked back, we could just make out two humans with dog. (You probably can't unless you magnify the photo, so don't strain!) They were soon to catch us up, and they were doing a long circuit which wouldn't include Benyellary but would instead take them down the Merrick above the Black Gairy. (We were being much more indulgent, with a car at each end!)
037 Tiny chaps middle left descending Kirriereoch with spaniel Not sure what best to do here, we didn't walk up the Little Spear, but took a faint track which seemed to head behind it to the ridge between it and the Merrick's top. It was ok, but I imagine the Little Spear could have been a better route. Humans and spaniel certainly thought so - we met them on the ridge.
039 Curling round to the bealach-ish by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
So saying, I liked being just under it and looking down a classic glacier-carve. The 'finger' of The Awful Hand's Merrick was to our left - the route the fellas with dog would take down to the road - and Kirriereoch's 'finger' to our right.
040 Glacier to west where Ayrshire meets Dumfries and G Still, we had two more knuckles to take in, so up we went, chatted with the happy blokes, took a glance back over the head of Little Spear and went on up, where we expected there to be a fair number of Merrickers come up from Loch Trool.
043 Little Spear and Kirriereoch with SonM behind There were, so we took quick snaps at the trig and found somewhere as sheltered as possible from the 40mph cold wind that had got up, so we could tuck into some lunch.
045 Merrick summit trig The spaniel fellas had met another dog-walker, and they headed off to the junction together, eight legs ultimately heading right, and six heading on to Benyellary.
046 Benyellary left Black Gairy right
047 View roughly southeast- Cairnsmore of Fleet left And after our rolls and tea/coffee, down we headed to knuckle no.5, Benyellary, enjoying the views around us as we went.
048 Lamachan with Cairnsmore of Fleet at back
049 Lochs Neldricken - Valley and Round Loch of Glenhead below Lamachan
050 Benyellary top Now came just the long walk out (I'd forgotten how long!) It was roasting hot once we were out of the wind, and my dodgy knee needed strapping up, no matter how much I put it off, before we were down by the Buchan Burn.
052 Baby willow and wood anemone on descent
053 Lamachan Hill (in sun this time, unlike my March clag-fest up there.)
054 Pipit
056 Stonechat
057 Loch Trool with Lamachan and Curleywee behind
058 Little waterfall after grey wagtail It's all very pretty once you get to the burn.
059 Euan on walk out And after a lot more stoney plod, we were at Bruce's Stone where we'd left Euan's borrowed car. He drove us back to our car on the Stinchar road and took off home, while I got my boots off, Keens on and drove home to meet him there.
All in all, a beautiful day (albeit a bit of reminder why I hadn't bothered to go back to the Merrick itself for five years - there are more interesting Galloway hills!

)