free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Our first trip to Scotland this year, we both had Easter off so a long weekend in the Southern Uplands had been planned for some time, Dumfries is easily accessible for us so we booked a three night stay at the Premier Inn, all we needed was some decent weather.
We drove up after work on Thursday, it's just a two and a half hour journey, a similar time to our trips to Cockermouth but it gives us the chance to explore a whole load of new hills
We arrived at half 9, had a quick coffee and readied our rucksacs to get an early start on Friday morning, the weather forecast was good so it looked like we were going to have a good day.
We were up at six, had a leisurely breakfast then set off for Forrest Lodge, our plan for today was Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells with an added extra, Carlin's Cairn if the weather was good and if it looked tempting enough
The sky was a clear blue when we set off, were we really going to be that lucky
We arrived at Forrest Lodge car park at 8 not another car in sight
this was good, with it being the Easter weekend we thought we'd set off early to make sure we got a parking spot, so that had worked, wow, good weather, parking no bother, things were on our side for a change
We were following the Walkhighlands route description for this walk and it's spot on, there are (new)? marker posts along the way to help so in combination you just can't take a wrong turn.
There was a lot of forestry work being done, maybe some harvesting going on, with the heavy machinery travelling up and down the tracks it had made them very muddy, we tried to keep to the edges but found we were not gaining any advantage so we ended up just seeking out the less muddy looking bits and ploughed on
Once we were over the new foot bridge crossing Folk Burn the track became much better and entered the trees for a short distance before being directed uphill and out of the trees.
This was the start of the ascent, we had our first un interrupted view of the lower slopes of Corserine
The path was clear enough as we went, climbing steadily with the views getting better and better, we were really lucky, the sun was shining, hardly a cloud to be seen, there was a slight breeze, this was good for keeping us cool, almost perfect conditions
the only complaint was it was a bit hazy, but, so what, photo's aren't everything on days like this
Cairnsmore of Carsphairn, we'd climbed that last year
Views
At Hennessy's Shelter (cairn and shelter, a big 'un)
we were getting our first look at Carlin's Cairn we decided to give it a go with the weather being so good to us, looking at the map it wasn't a big addition, it should only take us a hour or so
From car to trig point on Corserine took us 2 hrs 20 mins all in the sunshine,
At the trigpoint we had something to eat and I took loads of photies, the most prominent view was that of Merrick and Benyellery with Mullwharchar and Craignaw looking like a defensive wall in front of them
Looking south we could see the Rhinns of Kells, our route
and north was Carlin's Cairn our next objective looking too close to ignore so off we went
It only took twenty minutes to reach the summit, the cairn is massive and so are the views,
Merrick looked just as impressive, so that's on the agenda this year
Looking north we could see Meaul, Cairnsgarroch and Coran of Portmark another day out in the future. We set off back to Corserine reaching it in half an hour so the out and back trip was just fifty minutes, well worth the detour for an extra Donald.
From the trig we set off for Millfire a Donald top on the way to Milldown.
Merrick again
It's an enjoyable walk over grassy hillsides to reach Millfire,
The views are good
Back to Corserine
On the top the cairn is about 10m away to the left of the path we visited it then set off for Milldown.
This section meets a dry stone wall and follows it to the summit cairn which is slightly to the left of the wall. When we arrived at the cairn we decided to have our lunch and admire the views, the wall came in handy here, it gave us a bit of shelter from the coolish breeze that had been with us since we'd got higher. It was great just sitting there having our lunch and looking at the views, it was warm in the shelter of the wall, we took our time
Corserine from Milldown
Meikle Millyea from lunch spot
Views
After half an hour of so we decided we'd better get going, sitting down for lunch has it's drawbacks nowadays, getting up is a bit of a struggle when you've got old stiff joints
but, with a few grunts and groans we were upright again and on our
way
There's a bit of descent down to a marshy bealach where the Lochans of Auchniebut are, if you follow the wall from the summit it's probably drier than following the main path as we did, once above the lochans it's a steady climb to the trigpoint on Meikle Millyea.
There's a large cairn by the trig and there's another cairn southwest at NX51618254 that, I've read, is the true summit so we had a trip over to it, just to be sure
The views are good
Back at the trigpoint we had something to eat and a last look at Corserine and Merrick before we made our way down.
The path follows the wall for most of the way over Meikle Lump then leaves it to make it's way over a craggy section which we found a little difficult, especially where there's a small scrambly downclimb, it was wet and slippery so we had to take our time, we aren't as flexible as we used to be so it was a bit like climbing down whilst being tied to a plank
Once down we had a look back, it looked very benign, what was wrong with that then
poor old things
From here its an easy walk down to the trees and then back on the forestry tracks to the car park. We've just put an app on our phones that identifies birds by their song, we found chiff chaffs, song thrush, eurasian blackbirds, various tits and a buzzard, it's a good little app, we spent too long holding our phones up, well, the sun was still shining so why not
and a last good look at Cairnsmore of Carsphairn
Back at the car just over seven hours after setting off we'd had a fantastic day, really enjoyable, we only met a couple of other walkers, not bad for the Easter weekend, we couldn't help thinking that if we'd gone to the Lakes it might have been very different.
