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On Saturday one of my pals and I headed South wards to the Merrick. We had been meaning to walk this hill for ages, so finally took the time to arrange it.
The Merrick, a Corbett, is the highest summit in Southern Scotland. It is situated in Galloway Forest Park, so there is lots to do around the area - cycling, birdwatching, etc.
The Merrick (and/or it's surrounding area?

) is known as 'the awful hand', so I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I did have it in my mind's eye as being a bit like the Cobbler or something - knobbly. It wasn't. It was a terrific walk along a nice broad ridge.
We started the walk at the designated car park in Glen Trool. There is a visitor centre just before this, so we popped in to buy some home-baking beforehand (banana and date scones -

).
The path upwards is steep but clearly marked (felt it could do with a wee bit of work to improve drainage, but then again it was a rainy day).
- Path Upwards
Early on in the walk you hear the thundering noise of a nearby waterfall.
- First glimpse of the waterfall
It's a pretty awesome sight once you get a full view of it.
- Waterfall
Next on the route is a wee trek through some forest. You pass Culsharg bothy just before this (didn't take a photo, looks great but a bit blowy brrrr - no window glass/frames or doors).
- Forest Track
It's a steady pace climb all the way up to Benyellary (eagle mountain - didn't see any

), but then there's is a brilliant broad ridge walk all the way from that to the Merrick. This is called the Nieve of Spit (fortunately didn't see any of that either, see enough spit on pavements living in the Gorbals urgh

).
- Looking back towards Benyellary from the Nieve of Spit
The weather got a bit wet, wet, wet and windy here, but we did get the odd bout of sunshine and occasional views.
- A bit of a view near-ish the summit
There was no view at all from the misty summit (took us long enough to find the trig point!

), but all in all it was a fantastic walk. I would be happy to walk it again in any weather

.
- The Summit