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I hadn't been out since the Sunday of the Torridon meet when I just about beat the incoming weather on An Ruadh-mheallan, and had spent the last few weeks frothing at the mouth at the prospect of my next hill day. OK, the weather had been a bit pants, but my mind still longed to be in the hills, or in a bothy, or ideally both.
Term had seemed to drag on and so I made plans for a bothy night on the Friday before Christmas. School would finish at 12 o'clock that day for the Christmas break and with me not teaching on a Friday between 11 and 12, I could manage to slope off extra early.
I fancied the look of Burleywhag Bothy in the Lowther hills and put a few feelers out on FB but with little response. Kev was up for it though and so we arranged to meet at 1pm at the church in Durisdeer with the plan of leaving one car there and driving the other round to Mitchellslacks. From there we would walk in over Queensberry to Burleywhag and the following morning continue out over the Donalds of Earncraig Hill, Gana Hill, Wedder Law and Scaw'd Law with the option of extending the walk to the Donald/Graham of Ballencleuch Law, before descending back to Durisdeer.
Kev was planning on grabbing Andrewhinney Hill on the way down from Glasgow and I toyed with the idea of seeing if I could somehow get out of my only class of the morning and avoid the inconvenience of work entirely.
As luck would have it, I managed to duck out on the Friday morning and so headed straight down to Elvanfoot with the aim of doing Lousie Wood Law en route. I had given it a body swerve back in January when I had done the rest of the Lowthers range so I fancied a bit of tidying up this morning.
I parked up at the big parking area at Glenochar and texted Kev to let him know where I was. Surprisingly, his almost immediate response was that he was nearing the summit of Lousie Wood Law! I had passed a car that had looked suspiciously like his back in Elvanfoot, from where he had obviously ascended.
We agreed by text to meet up at the summit of LWL by which time he would have been out to Dun Law and back. After a brief handshake at the summit, we headed back down to Kev's car and he gave ne a lift back round t Glenochar, from where we headed for a pub lunch in Thornhill, having first left his car at Durisdeer.
This morning certainly set the tone for the weather to come. If anything, this was the good weather day!
There is little to report in the way of views or nice weather. I must admit that Burleywhag bothy was a wee cracker, despite the swamp we had to wade through to get to it, although the round of the Donalds between the bothy and Durisdeer on the Saturday was instantly forgettable (no offence to the company!).
Start at Glenochar
Ascent of Caipel Gair
Back down to the road
Bah humbug!
Looking back to LWL from Elvanfoot
Looking back to Mitchellslacks from the start of the walk to Burleywhag
Descending into the swamp
New houses
Bothy night #1
Bothy night #2
Bothy night #3Saturday 19th December
Burleywhag in the bright morning sunshine
This is Burleywhag
The Capel Burn in full spate
Looking a bit rough in this early morning selfie!
Kev checking the bearing on the ascent of Earncraig Hill
Daer Hass
ATV track coming off Gana Hill
Kev on Scaw'd Law
Me on Scaw'd Law
Kev descending to Durisdeer
Me descending to Durisdeer
Kev on the last leg into Durisdeer
Durisdeer