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This was our first get together for a couple of weeks, so I proposed another adventure in the deep SW - I did think 5 may be a bit too much for us but we managed fine.
We had plenty of catching up as Parminder had been to Strawberry Cottage with a gang of our pals, George & myself couldn't make it so we were keen to hear how things went as we love it there.
George volunteered to drive and as usual the drive SW takes about 2 hours, even with no traffic.
The plan was to tackle Bogrie first as that was the furthest away and also happened to be the highest hill for the day. Parking for all the hills using my routes is limited, mainly in wide approach tracks.
Bogrie Hill
, 3.2km, 201m of ascent, 1hr 5mins
The road as it continues past our parking spot
The way we came & will be heading back
Summit up there but we are not heading up that way
Both George and I made the mistake of attempting to cross this swamp, we soon retreated once we managed to extracate our boots as the mud was ankle deep
No path so be prepared for an interesting ascent
Parminder decided in his wisdom not to follow us round the bracken, he fancied battling through it
Looking back down
We picked up an ATV track which made the going a tad easier
Plenty of cotton plants on display in this general area
Well defined track now
Loch Urr to the West
Approaching the summit trig on Bogrie Hill
Southish
Northish
Fell Hill
, 6.5km, 221m of ascent, 1hr 54mins
Marching off along the good track heading towards Fell Hill
Excellent parking by George
The way ahead, a good chunk of the walk is on this track
Our target right next to one of the turbines, I don't remember the turbines being there on my previous visit in 2019, but on checking my photo's they were
These daft sheep decided to stop having their breakfast and join us on our walk along the track - for about 1km and left just before we reached the next gate
Here is the gate
Time to leave the track, taking the left fork
The ground on the left was a forest on my last visit
Still good going
We are heading towards the small cluster of trees
Looking back
Reaching the ruins of some sort of croft or similar
White foxglove, haven't seen many of that colour
Ruins
Still got a good slate roof
Peeking over the horizon
Looking back
The large cairn now visible
Arty shot of the trig on the summit of Fell Hill
Loch Howie just visible
George wanting to do a spot of mountaineering, it was very blowy BTW
Looking East and back to where we came from
If someone is missing a boot I placed it carefully onto one of the stones protruding from the cairn - PS it has no laces, we tried to visualise someone hopping downhill
Thistles starting to flower
Arty shot of my colleagues
Our daft friends must have been waiting for us to walk them back to where they came from
Bennan
, 2.85km, 179m of ascent, 1hr
The start of the walk up to Turner Monument which sits on top of Bennan
Gate negotiated it was straight uphill ascent to start with
The way ahead
Looking south
Plenty more cotton plants
The monument visible
Not far now
Almost like snow
Substantial monument to John Turner who died in 1841, aged 60
Bishop Forest Hill
, 3km, 188m of ascent, 58mins
Improvised parking for the ascent of Bishop Forest Hill
Nice sign for the farm entrance where we parked
Faint path heading uphill
Looking back downhill, we were watching a van head along the driveway to Muil Farm
Looking south, Glenkiln Reservoir appearing
The way up and ahead
Large cairn, not far now
Parminder wasn't expecting a trig so that brought a smile to his face
Parminder checking his 'mid range' solar powered Garmin watch and as usual it gave him an inaccurate height
Glenkiln Reservoir
The four hills had all been straight forward and gone exactly to plan, I was anticipating Killyleoch to be the hardest challenge of the day and it definitely tested our patience and stamina. When you find out that you have ascended 246m for a hill that is only 240m high, that just about says it all.
Killyleoch Hill
, 6.6km, 246m of ascent, 2hrs
The start of the walk for Killyleoch Hill, good track
Newtonairds Home Farm, quite an array of buildings
The majority of our walk was spent marvelling and discussing this hose. It went from the farm to Loweberry Loch which I measured to be 1.5km - very impressive
The hose snaking down to the farm
A visit to Dumfries & Galloway wouldn't be the same without a forest encounter. I plotted a route that would take round the outskirts of the forest that lies to the east of Killyleoch summit. All was going very well until we reached a wall on about the 200m contour, the wall wasn't the problem, it was what lay on the other side. It was deep bracken and very unwelcoming overgrown scrub. So we had a team meeting and decided to head downhill and try and reach the summit via the forest - so here we go
Parminder doesn't look terribly impressed with what he was seeing
This was OK, albeit a bit steeper than it looks
Looking back downhill
George scanning the possible way ahead, we were using our phones to navigate a way out. I was using OS maps, George was using Locus
Parminder is actually smiling
Our exit point from the forest
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The way ahead, summit not too far
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Yet another wall to climb over
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The summit area
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Looking NW
Looking westish. The majority of previous walk reports all approach this hill from the west
Summit stones on Killyleoch Hill, this was the smallest of the five hills and turned out to be the most challenging
We were now following a fire break down through the forest, using my previous route
The track we eventually reached that would take us back to the car
The hose on the track not too far from the loch
The ruin of Loweberry that I remember from my last visit
A cracking day and the sting in the tail is what makes hill walking so much fun. We were pleased to reach George's car & our next stop on the way home would be Burger King at Abington and it went down a treat. Our next trio gathering will be in July when we will hopefully be back on the Munro quest in an effort to assist Parminder compleat, hopefully this year.
