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Carlin's Cairn, Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells

Carlin's Cairn, Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells


Postby SecretSquirrel » Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:45 pm

Route description: Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells, Forrest Lodge

Corbetts included on this walk: Corserine

Donalds included on this walk: Carlin's Cairn, Corserine, Meikle Millyea, Milldown

Date walked: 11/04/2016

Time taken: 7.75 hours

Distance: 19.31 km

Ascent: 1216m

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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 :lol:

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 :D

Corserine beyond the devastation of forestry harvest
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Craigbrock and North Gairy
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View to North Gairy while ascending Craigrine
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Looking back to Galloway Forest Park
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The route up Craigrine to Corserine
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Corserine summit trig
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Merrick
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Carlin's Cairn from the summit of Corserine
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Approaching Carlin's Cairn
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Looking back to Polmaddy Gairy on the NE side of Corserine
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Carlin's Cairn Summmit
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Summit view of Dungeon Hill, Merrick and Mulwarchar
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Heading back up Corserine
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The Rhinns of Kells and Loch Dungeon
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Millfire
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Dungeon Hill and Merrick behind, still stealing the lime light
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Craignaw looking impressive
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Looking down on Loch Dungeon from Millfire
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Milldown summit cairn looking back to Corserine
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The largest of the Auchniebut Lochans
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Following the old dry stone wall to Meikle Millyea
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Summit cairn on Meikle Millyea's northern top
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Zoom to the snow capped hills of the Lake District
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Lochs Harrow, Minnoch and Dungeon
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Following the dry stone wall down off Meikle Millyea
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Last look back at the Meikle Lump before heading back into the forestry
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Last edited by SecretSquirrel on Tue Apr 12, 2016 9:26 am, edited 4 times in total.
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SecretSquirrel
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 420
Munros:124   Corbetts:26
Fionas:24   Donalds:76
Sub 2000:10   Hewitts:1
Joined: Jul 2, 2012
Location: Hamilton

Re: Carlin's Cairn, Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells

Postby rockhopper » Tue Apr 12, 2016 9:13 am

That looked good :thumbup: - cracking day to enjoy this as there's some great walking country down here. Good idea to add Carlin's Cairn as it seems less of a walk from this side rather than the other. Meikle Millyea's cairn and trig can be offputting as the real summit is at a wee cairn about 400m to the SW although when you're there it doesn't look much higher :roll: - cheers :)

PS Noticed you had Millfore in the hills list but wondered if that was right ?
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rockhopper
 
Posts: 7444
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Re: Carlin's Cairn, Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells

Postby SecretSquirrel » Tue Apr 12, 2016 9:46 am

rockhopper wrote:That looked good :thumbup: - cracking day to enjoy this as there's some great walking country down here. Good idea to add Carlin's Cairn as it seems less of a walk from this side rather than the other. Meikle Millyea's cairn and trig can be offputting as the real summit is at a wee cairn about 400m to the SW although when you're there it doesn't look much higher :roll: - cheers :)

PS Noticed you had Millfore in the hills list but wondered if that was right ?


Thanks RockHopper. I'm happy to trick off Meikle Millyea for now, but I know it will niggle away at me until I return :lol:

And nope ... as you rightly suspect we didn't do Millfore in that round :wink: I had selected it earlier in error and thought I had fixed the problem by unticking it. Seems I forgot to untick the Graham *and* the Donald :roll: Fixed now.

Thanks :thumbup:
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SecretSquirrel
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 420
Munros:124   Corbetts:26
Fionas:24   Donalds:76
Sub 2000:10   Hewitts:1
Joined: Jul 2, 2012
Location: Hamilton

Re: Carlin's Cairn, Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells

Postby Broggy1 » Tue Apr 12, 2016 10:52 am

Brings back good memories. I did this exact round - in almost identical conditions at pretty much the same time of year - a few years ago.

Lovely,quiet hills.

Thanks for sharing. :)
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Broggy1
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Posts: 1170
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Re: Carlin's Cairn, Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells

Postby SecretSquirrel » Tue Apr 12, 2016 1:00 pm

Broggy1 wrote:Brings back good memories. I did this exact round - in almost identical conditions at pretty much the same time of year - a few years ago.

Lovely,quiet hills.

Thanks for sharing. :)


Thanks Broggy. I had actually read your report while planning this walk. Your pointing out the Fir tree next to the stone bridge was very helpful! Thanks :D

The tree now ...

Image
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SecretSquirrel
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 420
Munros:124   Corbetts:26
Fionas:24   Donalds:76
Sub 2000:10   Hewitts:1
Joined: Jul 2, 2012
Location: Hamilton

Re: Carlin's Cairn, Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells

Postby rockhopper » Tue Apr 12, 2016 11:05 pm

SecretSquirrel wrote: I'm happy to trick off Meikle Millyea for now, but I know it will niggle away at me until I return :lol: :
oops :oops: apologies :think: didn't mean to cause you consternation - odd thing is that the large cairn and trig look higher than from the wee cairn - can't be much in it at all - cheers :)
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rockhopper
 
Posts: 7444
Munros:282   Corbetts:222
Fionas:136   Donalds:89+20
Sub 2000:16   Hewitts:2
Wainwrights:3   Islands:20
Joined: May 31, 2009
Location: Glasgow

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