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Only late November but Christmas seems to have come early for walkers this year - the sunniest ever November for Scotland, with hardly any rain. A few days of hard overnight frosts (even in Glasgow) made this the perfect time to climb Criffel: a hill with a reputation for serious bog. In fact, the circular walkhighlands route from New Abbey gets the dreaded 5-boot bog status
-5C as we left Glasgow at about 8.30am, and in several spots along the M74 southwards. Low sun combined with frozen screenwash made for a somewhat tricky journey with a number of stops to clear the windscreen, but we eventually made it to the car park up the hill from New Abbey, where the temperature finally rose just above freezing. Starting from here cut about two kilometres of road walking from the walkhighlands route (which is below).
The first section of the route passed through fields to Loch Kindar. Paths were intermittent with an eye on the map needed. Very frosty in the shade; golden sunshine elsewhere. To the north, the Waterloo Monument looked especially fine.
Not a ripple on beautiful Loch Kindar, with a waymarker pointing the way south around the bank.
A gate led into thicker woodland, with a meandering path climbing to a forestry track above.
Gaps in the trees gave views first to the loch, and later across the Solway Firth. The Lake District beyond... wow.
Further on, the track intersected with the path from Ardwall. A right turn here and the ascent properly began, first on a perfectly-made path:
At the edge of the trees it all goes a bit pear shaped: the path from here to the summit is a mess. But the bog was almost completely frozen over, with ice where running water had frozen over the only thing to be careful of. Some spectacular cylindrical ice crystals forming on the soil, and a grouse silhouetted over to the left near the summit.
We'd been in the shade for almost the entire ascent, only breaking into the sun just before the summit. A few shallow snow patches near the top, and the ice had just started to thaw in the sun, with a few partially frozen swamps to watch out for. Views from the top speak for themselves:
Time for a sandwich at the summit, but despite the sunshine we were soon feeling chilly - it was probably still a couple of degrees below freezing with a light but noticeable wind. Time to head north towards Knockendoch. On the gradual descent we passed a hill runner, who soon overtook us again on his way down, at a seriously impressive speed considering the slippery ground. The path was just starting to come into the sun at this point, but still mostly frozen underfoot. View ahead to Knockendoch:
And from the summit:
Back to Criffel:
The steep descent from Knockendoch starts off OK but soon becomes a boggy mess... again. At least on the ascent you can divert around the worst parts; on the descent you're hemmed in by a wall and thicker vegetation. The ground was still
mostly frozen for us, but care required. More pleasant to focus on the views:
Eventually we entered a gloomy forest where the path noticeably improves. The last section of path to the car park has partly been obliterated by a new track, but the way is clear. New track:
The track branches left and the old path is visible again underneath - fork right here.
A real cracker in conditions like this, and a good escape from the Christmas shopping crowds!