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Another trip down to England for family reasons and as the forecast was rather good I planned to visit a couple of solitary Marilyn's on the way home. Left Cheshire at 8am and as the satnav in my car is absolutely useless I had typed out directions to both start points. First port of call was Calkin Rig slightly NW of Langholm (never been before), I had studied the single WR and based my walk on it. Huge thanks to inca
There was hardly a cloud in the sky and when I parked up I was greeted by an incessant noise from a field next to the track where the local farmers were tending to umpteen sheep and lambs.
Calkin Rig, 8km, 1hr 45mins, 400m of ascent
Parking area for Calkin Rig
The source of all the noise
The way ahead, nice dry track
Not the friendliest of signs
The way ahead with the target in the distance on the horizon
Take the right hand fork in the track
The only muddy bit on the track
The track weaves its way round the lumpy bits
Bridge over a tiny burn
Abandoned / boarded up cottage featured in inca's report
Water feature, not quite a raging torrent
Aforementioned cottage
Looking back
On reaching this gate it was time to really head uphill
Leaving the track is a bit of a shock to the system, not only is the ground much steeper, stumps of tussocky grass are added to the equation.
I followed the fence line uphill
Looking back down towards the track
Looking west
On reaching the fence junction with this gate on the right, I climbed over the gate and headed west for a couple of hundred yards to the insignificant summit
Looking east
The summit, I rearranged the bits of wood to assist future explorers
Not the best of views from the summit
Low level shot of the tussocky grass taken from the summit, although the angle makes it look higher - it isn't
Heading downhill now
It wouldn't be the Borders without these things popping up somewhere
Arty shot through a firebreak to the west
Looking north
Calkin Rig route
Scaw'd Fell, 12km, 2hrs 45mins, 530m of ascent
Parking spot by the bridge for Scaw'd Fell
The bridge over Moffat Water
The majority of the walk is along the Southern Upland Way on a good track that weaves it's way gradually uphill round forestry plantations.
In case you didn't believe me, Moffat Water in the background
The way ahead, Moffat Water on the left
Looking back towards Moffat
Trees offering a bit of shelter from the sun, not often we say that
Go straight on here, the track can be seen ascending in the distance
Serious bit of kit to assist pruning trees
Rather remote place to live
Now the fun begins, left the track and initially ascended uphill over the tree felling debris
A few stops before the ridge ahead is reached
Looking back downhill
Looking back down NW
The ascent becomes even harder - knee deep heather to battle through
Looking back
The exciting summit of Scaw'd Fell
Plenty of trees still to be harvested
Large cairn south of the true summit
Looking up to the summit from the cairn
On my way down now
Scaw'd Fell route
Turned out to be a really enjoyable day, naturally helped by the 'unusual' weather, out of the two hills personally I preferred Calkin Rig. My next Marilyn wherever that may be, will actually take me over the hard earned 10% mark.