


However, there was still a lot of unseasonal spring snow around. We considered several options, including White Coomb or other options around Moffat, but we eventually settled on the nearest hill of any note to Hawick, the Graham Cauldcleuch Head. This has the distinction (?



As I was driving down from Glasgow, we weren’t going to get the earliest start, so we went for the quickest way up, which is from the north via Priesthaugh Farm. The wee unclassified road off to the left of the A7 heading south from Hawick that leads to Priesthaugh was thankfully clear of snow

Just about twenty metres up the road, a farm track leads off to the right heading for the higher Priesthaugh-Hill Farm, and it is this track that provides easy access to Cauldcleuch Head.
This gave an easy and scenic stoat, and we made pretty quick progress initially, discussing the difficulties of getting kids interested in hillwalking (I despair of my three, frankly

Where the track forked, we took the right-hand branch leading down across the Priesthaugh Burn to Priesthaugh-Hill Farm.
Next came a bit of limbo-dancing under an electric fence: probably not a very edifying sight

From here on, although the way up was very obvious (just following our noses up, right against the forest fence, thinking of Good King Wenceslas), it was also fairly slow going, as the snow lay all about, deep and crisp but not particularly even on the tussocky grass.
As we gained height, there were some fine views out north over Holywell Rig, back towards Hawick, with (I think) the Moffat hills visible away in the distance:
Eventually we got to the top of the forestry, and from here it looked a straightforward Snow Plod over Skelfhill Fell, then round Cauldcleuch Head’s heavily forested northeastern corries to reach the rounded summit.
All that snow continued to slow us down quite a bit, though

More nice views on the way up, over Langtae Hill and Millstone Edge to the west:
We joined another line of fencing, which led up right towards the main rounded summit of Cauldcleuch Head at last.
Again the best views were to the north. The rather pleasing wee well-defined conical hill in the foreground is Skelfhill Pen, a different hill from Skelfhill Fell and surprisingly not even qualifying as a Sub2K Marilyn, although it does have a trig point. The Moffat Corbetts were still visible as big snow-covered lumps in the far distance.
And so, at the summit at last

Time for the inevitable Silly Photo!
Now, how do you work the auto-timer thingey on this camera? No, not like that

And no, not like that either...
Ah, got it now

And so it was time to start plodding back downhill. The snow hadn’t got any shallower

And a nice sweeping vista back down Skelfhill Fell towards Priesthaugh-Hill Farm:
All those Christmas Trees were looking very pretty in the snow, continuing the Good King Wenceslas theme: difficult to believe that it was April

And a final fond look back:
It took us a mildly embarrassing five hours to complete this: I blame the snow

