free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Parked just before the bridge at the end of the road at Kirkhope. Room for one car on the grass. The farm buildings are not in use, the cottage has a satellite dish, but looked empty.
Followed the track south, until it turns southwest when I looked for the small path as marked on the map. There is a set of gateposts but no gate, fence or path. Slightly higher up the slope a quad bike track leads in roughly the same direction so I followed this up Thick Cleuch and then headed for the boundary fence just above Five Wells. After that it was an easy walk over towards the undistinguished summit of Gana Hill, stopped for a photo at the cairn, not at the summit but a kink in the boundary fence, then on to Earncraig Hill, pausing only to smear on more suntan cream, temperature in the mid-twenties.
- Not the summit - just the obligatory cairn photo
From the (also unditinguished) summit of Earncraig Hill, down the long broad ridge of Whiteside Hill to Daerhead, easy enough to cross the stream at the ford in these low water conditions. Daerhead is boarded up, but some evidence of work going on there.
Then is was back along the track to the car. Time to ponder on the future of these hills - so few sheep now - so what future?
There was some wildlife - mountain hare, wild goat, skylark, meadow pipit, raven, carrion crow, red grouse on the slopes, with oystercatcher, lapwing, jack snipe, swallow, house martin, pheasant and red-legged partridge in the valley. It sounds ok for a species list, but numbers were low - I saw only one crow, one red grouse.
I certainly don't want to see blanket wind farms or conifer plantations - but there must be something better than the grassy desert I walked over today.
