Bennan via the Covenanter monuments

[wjshaw2]

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We parked at the entrance to the track into Craigadam Woodlands, near where the 1:25000 map says Bloodmire Moss, surely a reference to the killing of the Covenanters buried just a little way into the woods. They have a monument and a burial site. These unprepossessing hills harboured real hatred at one time, a real disregard for life, and also real convictions that there was something worth living and dying for. The mucky woodland setting hardly does this justice, but perhaps it also shows the very ordinariness of such conviction.

Bads Knowe monument

Finger pointing heavenwards

Poem on the grave. I think the Duke de Alva's men refers to a Catholic army oppressing Dutch protestants and they obviously had no time for the Turks either...

From the grave we headed roughly along the ride marked on the 1:25000 map towards Craigelwhan. It wasn't really there on the ground, but there was plenty of mud and windblown and felling to get in the way. It may well have been a better idea to go back to the road and up from there instead.

Is this a good idea?

It just looks like mud to us, but to these guys it's home

A few diversions

But there's light at the end of the tunnel

But whilst it was slow progress choosing our way around the various obstacles we made it out to the edge of the forestry and eventually found a way to escape onto the open moors.

Over the gateless barbed wire fence/wobbly wall combination

From here on it was tussocks and grouse. The tussocks occasionally tend towards the deep, dead-grass covered ones characteristic of the higher Galloway Hills that make for quite hard going. The bog on Lochenkit Bennan was a good one with signs of being used for peat cutting in the distant past. But it's a straighforward wet and bumpy few kms over Craigwelwhan towards Bennan. There's no gate in the wall at the edge of the forestry near Bennan summit, but there was an interesting stream that seemed to run directly beneath the wall, making a noise but never appearing. The streams on the map near the woods are marked strangely - they seem to run uphill at a few points...

Nearing Craigelwhan top looking towards Bennan

Across the tussocks and a new pipeline/cable route

Enormous slug with foamy tail

The monument topping Bennan is pretty big and has a pretty tall tale associated with it. It commemorates a traveller who made horn cutlery and who predicted his own death. For a good telling of it and a transcription of what it says on the monument see here:

http://www.dunscore.org.uk/johnnie-turner-sp-118.html

Sheltering behind the John Turner monument

We don't do graffiti like this anymore

We came down the hill to the south and then south west, heading for the track that runs along the wall. There is actually a wee path that runs from 823765 towards this track, but beware - it has at least two snares on it set at dog level. Is this legal?

Mind your feet

Bennan disappearing into the gloom

We didn't hang around long on the way down as we'd had our usual late start, but managed to get back to the car just before torches became necessary. I'm sure the views across Dumfriesshire and Galloway would be good from here on better days.

[kev_russ]

Nice wee report. Never knew about the monument. Like a wee bit o scottish history. Cheers