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After my exploits in the Borders earlier in the week I decided to make the most of the lingering high pressure and head south again. After studying the map I decided to go a bit further afield, thought about The Merrick but didn't want to travel all that way for a single Corbett. I noticed Corserine could be combined with a couple of Donalds so that was the plan.
Posted my intentions as usual and Jac (jac the lassie) popped up out of the woodwork and offered to keep me company. We arranged to meet at the car park intending to start walking by 9am, we were both early which is surprising because I had forgotten how bendy the A702 is once you leave the M74 and head SW, hardly got a chance to put my foot down
The drive wasn't made any more enjoyable by extensive fog patches
- Large car park
The initial part of the walk is through the forest along forest tracks, care was needed as the were plenty of ice patches trying to entice you into a slip up
On reaching the edge of the forest you are confronted with a fence, not a problem for us humans, but Jac had to lift her 2 dogs over the fence, very carefully as barbed wire in situ to make it more challenging. The greyhound Bella wasn't too much of a problem for obvious reasons but Ben her Black Lab required a few more muscles.
Once across the fence the way ahead is fairly obvious and the way ahead was very spectacular, it reminded me of Corrie Fee
- The barbed wire fence
- Fantastic view of the way up
- Looking back down to the forest
The trudge up to the summit of Corserine was hard going, very similar to my tough day earlier in the week, every step was guess work, how far down would one's foot sink
Even when the snow was crisp and firm you were still prepared to be caught out with that sinking feeling. The ascent wasn't steep it just seemed to take a while but as we gained height the views started to open up behind us, so we had to stop fairly frequently purely to take photo's
- Looking back, interesting patterns in the sky
- Carsphairn Hills
- Looking back again
After all the hard work we reached the large cairn on Corserine, however the Trig point was on the far side of the huge summit plateau which in clag could be a navigational challenge
I got the map out to see what the cairn was to the north and discovered it was Carlin's Cairn, had we known it was a recognised Corbett we would probably have nipped across to say hello, especially as it didn't look too far away with not too much descent/ascent
- Corserine cairn
- Corserine trig with Bella muscling in on the photo
- Carlin's Cairn, doesn't look too far away
- Loch Enoch?
Jac and I were really surprised that we hadn't seen another human being yet, the weather was amazing, gloves weren't utilised all day and on the ascents fleeces were removed and the sun actually seemed to be generating some heat
We set off from the large summit of Corserine along a wide ridge which offered great views, but we couldn't really admire the views as we had to keep an eye on every single footstep. Some of the walk was made slightly easier by old/previous footsteps in the snow, unfortunately they were a bit random.
- The ridge ahead
- The wonderfully named Loch Dungeon
- A bit chilly on the feet
- The Merrick peeking up through the cloud
- Summit cairn on Milldown
- Final summit cairn and trig on Meikle Millyea
On the final summit of Meikle Millyea (interesting name) because it was the most southerly part of the walk the view were outstanding, we could even see England
- The Solway Firth can just be seen
After reaching the final summit of the day we thought the descent would be straightforward, how wrong. Firstly the snow seemed to be even deeper and softer, both of us managed to find a hidden water hole
The descent follows a stane dyke wall, when we reached the edge of the forest we were confronted with a high deer fence. Jac had read previous reports and was expecting the fence, which had a style somewhere, so it was a matter of scanning the length of the fence and Jac spotted it
After crossing the style, the next task was to try and reach the track, that involved tackling an obstacle course
Fallen trees had to be clambered over prior to reaching the track that would take us back through the forest to the car park. A word of warning the track back to car did seem to take quite a long time and care should be taken to make sure you head in the right direction.
- Obstacle course
- The track back to the car park
A big thanks to Jac for her company, hope I didn't slow you down too much
If anyone hasn't been down this way you really should make an effort, you won't be disappointed
It would be interesting to see what these hills are like when all the white stuff has disappeared.
Next.
