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Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE

Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE


Postby Fife Flyer » Sun May 22, 2022 9:38 pm

Corbetts included on this walk: Cairnsmore of Carsphairn

Donalds included on this walk: Cairnsmore of Carsphairn, Moorbrock Hill

Date walked: 21/05/2022

Time taken: 6 hours

Distance: 15.5 km

Ascent: 885m

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Another venture back down to the SW again this time for a bit of an adventurous plan - for me at least.
I looked at various options for tackling these 2 hills together, read a few walk reports and finally came up with a cunning plan. Linking these 2 hills together is not ideal as there is a glen between them which takes you down to 465m a drop of 350m off Cairnsmore which as it is quite steep doesn't take too long.
My original plan was to start from the usual start point on here, but the thought of having to ascend round Cairnsmore again was not very appealing. So the route from the SE was more appealing as it has over 200m of less ascent, which is good for me because that is where I am struggling.
We left Fife shortly before 8am and were walking 2 hours later.


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George parked at the entrance and we opted to head up the newly created track - as it was featured on Locus (our navigation app)

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Had we stopped to read all that blurb it would have been dark before we set off

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We must have seen about 10 of these on our travels

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Feeding point for animals, not sure if it is for farm animals or deer?

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Salt block for animals. the only other time we have seen these was in the Fannichs

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Excellent track with a gradual incline, the big drawback we would be descending soon

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Storage area for machinery and other stuff, also has a portable CCTV system

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Not the biggest windfarm

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You can see the descent ahead, Moorbrock Hill in the distance would be our second hill

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We tiptoed past the Moorbrock houses as the track takes you very close to the buildings. This building was being built on my last visit 5 years ago

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We followed the track as far as the digger in the distance

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Beautiful water feature, much better than the concrete ones you pay a fortune for at your local garden centre

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Different angle, there are 3 ponds at different levels

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Target practice?

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Not a bad front drive, nice and colourful

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The plan is to loosely follow the wall and burn through the gap in the trees

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Another viewing platform

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Looking back, the terrain wasn't ideal, undulating and a tad damp

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George leading the way, we are aiming for half way up the ridge - then traverse round along the 600m contour line

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Beninner

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Moorbrock Hill in the background

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The weather was pretty grotty now

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If you zoom in you will see the cairn on Beninner

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The final push to the summit of Cairnsmore of Carsphairn

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A fair sized cairn on the summit

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Summit trig and shelter

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Weather was starting to improve for our descent of Cairnsmore

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Something that is common in the Borders peeking out under the cloud

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The descent was fairly steep but very doable

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One of George's looking uphill

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Looking northish

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Moorbrock Hill, our original plan was to head straight up the front of it

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Not much descending left, the ground was to get rather damp underfoot

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New deer fence

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Looking back up to Cairnsmore of Carsphairn, doesn't look steep from this angle

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Parminder found a cane with a wee flag on it, he was planning to utilise on the summit of Moorbrock

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We spotted this track earlier and amended our approach up Moorbrock to make the underfoot walking much easier, it did involve adding a bit of a detour but it was a much better option than a pathless slog

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Another viewing platform

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And another one, with Beninner in the background

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The track is a bit overgrown, but still much better than tussocky grass

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Interesting grassy plant formation, quite a few of these

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Looking down towards Moorbrock House, this would be our descent route

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The sun suddenly made an appearance and all the dampness on the ground was being drawn upwards

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We are now on the summit plateau area of Moorbrock, the summit isn't what you could describe as pointy

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Parminder carefully placing his recently acquired flag

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The huge summit cairn and the modification with Windy Standard in the background

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Final descent now, we are aiming for the track and then Moorbrock House area

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Another platform

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Very tidy area around Moorbrock House and the other buildings

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The water feature again

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And again

Despite the grotty weather at the start of the day, I really enjoyed myself, still struggling uphill but I think I am improving slightly. Our next outing will depend on where the weather is more favourable, we may even head north and tackle one of our outstanding Munro's.
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Re: Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE

Postby natubat » Wed May 25, 2022 9:16 pm

Amazing - you did this route the day after I tried to and failed! I approached it from Craigengillan. As I walked past the cottages, a black labrador ran right up to me barking loudly, and a man in the garden was slow to call it off.

Then when I reached the gate to the estate, it was tied up with wire in quite a complex knot. I got the impression that if I untied the knot and walked through, I might be trespassing, especially after the not too friendly dog! So after walking round for about an hour looking for an alternative route, I went back to my car. :-x

I returned on Monday and climbed Beninner and Moorbrock from the Green Well near Carsphairn, climbing almost to the summit of Cairnsmore of Carsphairn twice (and I've climbed it before anyway!). Luckily I only live an hour's drive away.
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Re: Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE

Postby Jillywilly » Tue Aug 16, 2022 2:05 pm

Looks good, I’ve been studying the OS map and wonder if it would be cycleable on the track you followed. Again I’m concerned about having to go past Estate buildings etc the map shows a track right up to Windy Standard from Moorbrock but not sure how great a track it would be.
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Re: Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE

Postby Fife Flyer » Tue Aug 16, 2022 6:34 pm

Jillywilly wrote:Looks good, I’ve been studying the OS map and wonder if it would be cycleable on the track you followed. Again I’m concerned about having to go past Estate buildings etc the map shows a track right up to Windy Standard from Moorbrock but not sure how great a track it would be.


You could certainly cycle to the edge of the estate buildings which is a shade under 2km. In my opinion not sure it would be worth the extra effort, nice free wheel back to the car. Good luck as they are good hills.
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Re: Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE

Postby Jillywilly » Thu Aug 18, 2022 9:39 pm

Thanks, I did Windy Standard from Alhang yesterday so just need Moorbrock now, I’ll just walk and hopefully park and go up Estate entrance not Craigengillan and see how I get on.
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Re: Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE

Postby Tom at Ayr2 » Thu Feb 16, 2023 8:25 pm

Having walked the access road to Moorbrock Estate, I learned that the houses can can be avoided by taking a path to east side.
It is sign posted about 150 meters before the first building as you approach from the SE.
IMG_0383.JPG

The path takes you past a pond and joins the road on the north side of the second house where there is another signpost.
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Re: Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE

Postby thedonalds » Fri Feb 17, 2023 4:24 pm

Once upon a time I climbed Moorbrock from Craigengillan and was hijacked at the start by a small terrier type dog that decided it was going to stay with me all day. No amount of cajoling could persuade it to go home so off we went, straight up Moorbrock; along the top to the north end then down to the forest track and back. Apart from the dog heading off temporarily to chase a roe door we both had a grand time.
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Re: Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE

Postby Coop » Wed Feb 22, 2023 9:25 pm

Nice one.

That forestry pic looks like a sleeping dog 😄
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Re: Carsphairn & Moorbrock from the SE

Postby Booga » Thu Feb 23, 2023 6:26 pm

Nice report and photos. I walked in to Clennoch about a year ago in sideways drizzle and all the hills were in cloud so it's nice to see what they look like! We'd made the mistake of just walking and chatting without looking at the map enough and took 2 unplanned diversions, one up Craigengillan Hill and one into the forestry just North of the houses at Moorbrock.

Spent the night at Clennoch watching the blades of the nearby wind turbines descending out of the cloud before disappearing up into it again. On the walk out which was just as wet we met a local lady who was unaware the bothy was there.
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