Drab Damp Dirge of Donalds

[The English Alpinist]

Mostly this all day.

There is really little to say about this day apart from it was drab, and I think would have been drab even if it were a dry midsummer's day. 'Damp' doesn't quite cut it, the better adjective is wet, but damp alliterates with drab. The walk itself was a 5-hour dirge. I don't recommend it in any conditions at any time of year, but I guess it is safe enough. The only real sense of pleasure was in the finishing of it and the bagging of 3 more Donalds and 2 Donald tops (both of those being rated as 'New Donalds', if I'm to try and say something good). For these reasons, as well as personal others, I was not up for it, sorry for the tone.

Ascent up Ewe Hill, Alhang in view.

The Cairsphairn Hills.

Alhang 2,106 feet (624m).

Onward to Alwhat.

Alwhat: this is what a 'New Donald' looks like 2,060 feet (628m).

The first job was to attain the tops, and the first Donald, Alhang. This I did by parking (and sleeping) at the end of the Water of Ken road, near the Nether Holm of Dalquhairn farm. I had no enthusiasm about this walk, but it had been 2 months since adding anything at all to my cause of Scottish mountains, so it was time to push myself out there and at least do something. Dumfries and Galloway is not such an intimidating journey from England, so off I went. There doesn't seem to be any official way up, so you just take your pick. I ascended via Ewe Hill, which was drab and damp.

Onward to Meikledodd Hill.

The summit of Meikledodd Hill 2,110 feet (643m) - thereabouts.

Onward to Blacklorg Hill.

Great stuff, and wow - pylons!

The cloud was sunken in for the day, with barely any breakage in it, the rain continuous but at least quite light. However, out there, it's the type of rain that makes you - no matter how good your waterproofing - after a while - 'damp'. It was an easy enough job to make the drab dirge over the top, Alwhat, and up to the next top, Meikledodd Hill. Both of these struggled for any sense of 'place' at all. Just a drab, damp moorland landscape with a forest or two to skirt. Even those looked sad, broken pretences at the vast primeval versions they would once have been. I think I encountered Meikledodd's precise summit - I'll never be 100% sure - but I'm counting it. Blacklorg Hill, up next, had a little bit more character to its summit, but I'm being generous.

Blacklorg Hill 2,234 feet (681m), a Donald.

Onward to Blackcraig Hill.

Getting pretty sick of this now.

The cloud looked like a thought bubble.

Reaching Blackcraig Hill was a slightly more serious matter, a bigger descent and re-ascent and more 'out there' and higher. There was no excuse for not doing it, though, although the thought had been occuring to me since the off. But I did not want the post-walk dismal reflection of having chickened out and knowing I would need to go out into that region again (maybe taking the trouble to access it from the north) to fit in a walk specially to do only that. With a get-them-done attitude, I got it done. The terrain in between Blacklorg and Blackcraig was drab and damp in the extreme, rising almost to swamp status. The summit of Blackraig Hill did feel like a proper summit, I have to say, even with rocks to it, and the higher elevation made for sleet instead of rain. Then I had to turn back and cover the same ground again to Meikledodd Hill, choosing to make my descent from there and over Lorg Hill. Easy enough - but a drab, damp, dirge.

Blackcraig Hill (also a Fiona) 2,300 feet (701m).

Descending off Lorg Hill.

Epilogue: I recommend the Clachan Inn in Dalry, just half an hour down the road from this drabness. It feels modern yet traditional at the same time, and a very pleasant atmosphere.

This walk is followed by 'Cairnsmore of Carsphairn is as good as it sounds!'
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=117407

[Dave Hewitt]

I think I encountered Meikledodd's precise summit - I'll never be 100% sure

Looks like you were pretty close - according to this it's just off to the side of the bend in the fence shown in your picture:
https://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/mountaindetails.php?qu=S&rf=1758

I can't remember from my own visits - not recent, August 1994 and July 2000.

[ExpatEddie]

Sorry to hear that you had such a miserable day on these hill. I have done these hills a few times and would not have considered coming from the east. For Blackcraig and Blacklorg I started from the road at Blackcraig in Glen Afton. For Alhang and Windy Standard plus those 'Tops' started from below the Afton Reservoir and for Moorbrock with top Keoch Rig at the Moorbrock Estate entrance on the Water of Ken Road (park carefully).

Hope this helps and Good Luck on future Donalds.