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Cracking sunny day doing an anti-clockwise route of the Rhinns of Kells with Carlin's Ciarn tagged on. We had a little delay on the drive in ... A herd of cows and calves had commandeered the road next to some hay feeders. The calves were relatively quickly persuaded to move but there was one stubborn cow lying on the road that took an age to convince to move. Once on its feet, it then very vocally bellowed its disapproval at being moved
I had read a lot of reports that suggested the walk through the forestry was a bit mucky and unpleasant. However, the estate seems to be doing a lot of land work building new tracks and redirecting burns - presumably to aid in their natural energy production. The result being most of the forest walk, once past the barren harvested areas, was pretty pleasant.
Ther walk up corserine was accompanied with lots of rustling noises from the grass. The source was revealed when we spotted Common Lizards scurrying away to hide. They were far to fast for photographs! Reaching the summit of Corserine the decision was made for a quick out and back to Carlin's Cairn, which had excellent views out to the Arran hills.
Once back on Corserine the walk South across the Rhinns of Kells had awesome views to the West across Dungeon Hill, Merrick, etc. It was easy going all the way across the ridge, but the rockier ground made the walk more interesting. With the sun bright and warm and the wind having a bit of a bite, a dry stone wall near the summit of Milldown, made a great lunch spot. In the lea of the wall and the sun high above, it was a perfect, peaceful spot and if time had allowed we could have chilled there all afternoon.
From Milldown there is a short sharp descent to a wet bealach and Lochans before the reascent to Meikle Mellyea. I knew the trig and cairn we reached were not considered the true top, which lay 300m SW, but as time was getting tight we decided the Northern top (with the OS spot height of 746m) would do for today.
The route down Meikle Mellyea continued to follow the dry stone wall. The descent was straightforward, although wet and boggy ground needed care on the steeper sections. Once back at the forestry, it was a short ramble through the pines to reach the road back to the car park.
I can well imagine on a rainy, calggy day, these hills would be a miserable, lonely place to be, but on a day like we had, these are cracking little hills with smashing views
Corserine beyond the devastation of forestry harvestCraigbrock and North GairyView to North Gairy while ascending CraigrineLooking back to Galloway Forest ParkThe route up Craigrine to CorserineCorserine summit trigMerrickCarlin's Cairn from the summit of CorserineApproaching Carlin's CairnLooking back to Polmaddy Gairy on the NE side of CorserineCarlin's Cairn SummmitSummit view of Dungeon Hill, Merrick and MulwarcharHeading back up CorserineThe Rhinns of Kells and Loch DungeonMillfireDungeon Hill and Merrick behind, still stealing the lime lightCraignaw looking impressiveLooking down on Loch Dungeon from MillfireMilldown summit cairn looking back to CorserineThe largest of the Auchniebut LochansFollowing the old dry stone wall to Meikle MillyeaSummit cairn on Meikle Millyea's northern topZoom to the snow capped hills of the Lake DistrictLochs Harrow, Minnoch and DungeonFollowing the dry stone wall down off Meikle MillyeaLast look back at the Meikle Lump before heading back into the forestry