Corserine +
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 11:55 am
I had been up in Galloway pike fishing on Loch Ken since Monday and with my Brother heading back South on Thursday night this left me with Friday free for a walk in the Galloway Hills before I hit the North Pennines again on Saturday!
As luck would have it this was the best day of the week with wall to wall blue skies and excellent temperatures - a real shorts and t-shirt day.
I decided to try for the Corbett of Corserine hopefully taking in the Donalds of Meikle Millyea and Milldown as described on this website and as it was just there on the map, Carlins Cairn as well. The Northern Rhinns would have to wait for another day!
I arrived at Forest Lodge at 10am with only one other car there (infact I saw only one other walker all day - unbelievable considering the weather and the fact it was Good Friday!).
I followed the road to Fore Bush and into the forest ahead which seemed a shame considering the sun was lovely.
From here it was case of following good forest tracks around Loch Harrow with helpful blue walkers signs guiding the way.
The only point where a walker could go potentially wrong is right near the end of the forest section where the Walk Highlands Guide proves particularly useful in taking you across a stone bridge near a fir tree. The main track appears to carry straight on and the blue hillwalkers sign is actually hidden behind greenery.
Once over the deer fence it was back into the sun and a short but fairly steep climb up to Polmaddy Gairy and then across to the Corserine Summit Plateau and Trig Point.
From here it was a short and sharp descent followed by a similar short and sharp ascent to bag Carlins Cairn which had a particularly impressive summit cairn as you'd expect I guess with the name of the mountain.
Once I had regained the height lost to arrive back on Corserine it was now a simple case of following the ridge over the remaining Southern Khells.
It was now a roller coaster of a route with easy ups and downs between the tops of Millfire, Milldown and finally Meikle Millyea. I really enjoyed this section of the walk and the view were stunning throughout.
Although the actual summit of Millyea is slightly south of the Trig Point on the hill you can see why most people take this as the actual summit due to the views and feeling of finality at the end of a stunning ridge.
From the top all that was left was a short, rocky and quite boggy descent back down to the forest and then back along forest roads (just keep following the ones going downhill!) all the way back to the car.