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Looking at my Walkhighlands Donalds map, the southern Lowther Hills caught my attention for three reasons. First, none of the balloons were blue! Second, there were seven of them. And third, it looked feasible to do all of them in a reasonable day's walk. Just to check out that apparent feasibility, I looked through the walk reports and was delighted to see several descriptions of more or less the same route taking in all seven Donalds.
Saturday 24th June looked a suitable enough day for that sort of thing, so it was off to the Daer Reservoir with Karl, who didn't need much persuading.
On the way up from Cumbria we passed through a few light showers and noticed the clag was down on the Moffat hills, so we resigned ourselves to a probable day of limited visibility. But by the time we'd turned off the A702 for Daer the sky was brighter and the tops were clear. As we approached the dam we noticed it was covered in green turf - nice touch! We parked up just past the Hatteril Hill plantations by the Reservoir and started putting our boots on in the usual way, sitting on the front car seats with feet out of the open doors. The strong breeze kept blowing the door against my head which made the procedure frustrating!
It was almost 9.00am by the time we set off. My OS map (a First Series Landranger) showed a track heading off around the foot of Watchman's Brae and into Kirkhope Cleuch. This seemed an obvious way to access Comb Law, our first Donald of the day. There wasn't much evidence of this track on the ground though!
Further up the Cleuch a track of sorts did appear and a distinct path went straight up the steep slopes of Comb Law, which we followed. It was one of those paths that goes so far then disappears into the grassy tussocks.
- Heading for Comb Law
- Daer Resevoir
- Lowther Hill from Comb Law
Once we'd reached the top of Comb Law the going underfoot was smoother, following the fence. It was very breezy up here. Clearly we were in for a bit of buffeting. A good path was gained at the Rodger Law saddle and led to the second Donald, Ballencleuch Law. With the sun now shining, this was getting very enjoyable
.
- Fence leading the way to Ballencleuch Law
- On Ballencleuch Law, fence leading the way to Scaw'd Law
The fence joined a wall on Scaw'd Law, Donald number 3.
- Looking down Nithsdale to Criffel from Scaw'd Law
- Wedder Law from Scaw'd Law
From Scaw'd Law a steepish descent leads to what can only be described as a road, albeit a rough one. While taking advantage of the easy walking it affords, we did wonder why it was there and sincerely hoped it's not paving the way for yet another wind farm. Whatever its purpose, it led, with a significant descent and re-ascent, all the way to Wedder Law, Donald number 4.
- The road between Scaw'd Law and Wedder Law, looking back to Scaw'd
A bit of a diversion onto the grassy plateau is required to reach the highest point, which could be anywhere in a large area.
- Summit of Wedder Law looking to Ganna Hill and Queensberry
- West to the Galloway hills from Wedder Law
Back on track, a fence led all the way to the fifth Donald, Ganna Hill.
- Summit of Ganna Hill looking to Earncraig Hill and Queensberry
- Daer Resevoir from Ganna Hill
- Criffel and the Solway from Ganna Hill
We found a sheltered spot in a scattering of mossy stones and settled down for a lunch break, with a good view of the route ahead to Earncraig Hill and Queensbury. Five down, two to go!
- Sheltered spot for lunch, looking to Earncraig Hill and Queensberry
- Wind farm in the Forest of Ae
Setting off again from Ganna Hill, it was a considerable descent and we followed the fence a bit too far as it led us north of the col below Earncraig Hill. We were about level with the col by the time we noticed our error, and had to cut across some rough ground to reach the col. A vague path led steeply up from the col to the top of Earncraig - this was by far the steepest part of the walk so far.
- Looking back to Ganna Hill and Wedder Law from Earncraig Hill
- Queensberry from Earncraig Hill
From Earncraig Hill another considerable descent led to the col at the north end of Penbreck.
- North-east to the Moffat hills
Going up the other side was about as steep as Earncraig, but eventually gave out onto the undulating ridge leading to Queensberry. There had been a strong breeze all the way along but now it was stronger than ever and reached a peak of intensity on the summit of Queensberry.
- Summit of Queensbury
- Looking back to Earncraig Hill, Ganna Hill, etc.
- West from Queensberry
After taking in the extensive views from the big cairn - the biggest in the southern Lowthers - we headed down the way we'd come, back to the col at the north end of Penbreck. At this point it's debatable which would be the quickest way back to the car. A re-ascent beside the fence to access the burn descending from Chalybeate Spring, and hence the Landrover track at Daerhead, is the chosen route in most of the other walk reports. This was the way we went too, and it worked out OK. But it was tempting to avoid the re-ascent by going north down the Crook Burn to Whiteholm, then cut north-west over the moors to the bridge at Crookburn. Could have been worth a try but without any paths marked on the map and without knowing what the ground is like, it would have been a bit of a gamble.
- North from Queensberry
It felt a bit of a slog going back up. When the hill levelled out at the change in direction of the fence, we kept going in the same direction across the moor until the top of the burn became visible, which we followed without issue down to Daerhead. The very isolated building there looked derelict as we approached it, but on closer inspection was clearly being renovated and was at least partially habitable. Wouldn't want to live there though!
- Daerhead, in process of renovation
We cautiously crossed a half-destroyed footbridge to gain a good Landrover track, which annoyingly went up-valley before curving round to head in the right direction!
As we walked down the valley we were accompanied by the haunting cries of curlews and spotted a couple of oystercatchers flying close by.
- Dilapidated footbridge over Daer Water
We got back to the car at 5.20pm. No chance of getting to Moffat before the cafe's close
. Plenty of time for the pub though!
... A thoroughly decent walk in some splendidly open hill country, we thought, with extensive views and a good tally of Donalds.
