Well, that was a great local weekend. A bit of volunteering in East Ayrshire and family duties on Saturday. Then on Sunday, a revisit to the pointy hill-o’-the-wind, Curleywee in the midst of the Minnigaff Hills.

025 Larg and Lamachan Hills corries to Curleywee R
[the Minnigaff Hills from Cairnsmore of Fleet]

Remote, as Galloway hills go, tussock-and-forestry-bound, I’d approached Curleywee once before, from the north in March 2022. Nestling in the Minnigaff hills, which sit sort of perpendicular to the Merrick & Dungeon Hill group and Rhinns of Kells ranges, Curleywee seemed to me a kind of Sgùrr Na Strì of the Galloway Hills. (It’s all relative… 😉)



However, on that 2022 Lamachan-Curleywee attempt, I was dragging a friend with me through a snowy white-out. By the time we got to the foot of Curleywee, unable to see a thing above 600m and knowing we had a long, pathless descent and walk-out ahead, we bailed out. (Walk report here: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=111662)

That year, 2022, I kept finding myself looking at it:
1. from Cairnsmore of Fleet in January (above)

2. from below it in March:


3. from the Merrick in April:

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=112188

4. from the Rhinns of Kells in May:

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=112420

5. while hunting the Jarkness in July:

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=114175

Then from the Murder Hole in 2023 (https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=118696), and starting 2024 with a January trot up towards the Merrick:


Finally in August last year, we grabbed a rare few hours off from (increasing) aged Ps duties and walked up Millfore from Black Loch, enjoying this simple WH route https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/galloway/millfore.shtml, and this stunning view of Galloway Hills – with Curleywee – from the top:
Curleywee to Corserine

My bailed 2022 approach had been from the north, starting at Loch Trool, and a route I’d like to repeat as an out and back one sunny snowy day.

This time I’d found an attractive-looking clockwise route to Curleywee from Auchinleck in the south.



The route was actually circular , but my phone battery ran out while tracking.

I told E about the route, and between us we studied a few conundrums – mostly how to avoid crashing through too much of the typical forestry assault courses, and how to come down steep Curleywee having gone up it.

Mini-gaff 1: What we both failed to notice, in our rather slapdash ‘research’ was the big descent to forestry track after Curleywee, followed by the considerable rise up most of Millfore – and the absence of much alternative, again because of assault-course forestry.

Mini-gaff 2: Though I had map and compass, I’d buried them in my rucksack and was navigating by phone. Days were I used to take a copy of the bit of map I needed, draw my planned route on it and keep it to hand. Not this day though, and it was mighty windy to be flapping about with the full map. It would have been fine, but my phone decided to go very dark, which wasn’t a problem until after Curleywee.

Mini-gaff 3: As usual when we two are out in the hills, I was the only one navigating.

What wasn’t a gaff was that with two weeks of roasting sunshine, the ground would be so dry that these would be the best conditions for a tussock’n’bog route. So, like Buchan’s Richard Hannay, we “fixed on Galloway as the best place to go”. Early in the morning we parked at Auchinleck, and set off along the forestry tracks.

005 Millfore and Drigmorn Hill appearing

007 Whitethroat singing

Cuckoo, blackcap, whitethroat, song thrush, willow warbler and tree pipit were giving it their all along the way. And a drinker moth caterpillar was having a fairly droughty time of it.

005a Drinker moth

Our mission as we approached the 3.5km point or so was to find a suitable firebreak if one existed.
• The route, which was from Trail magazine, 2011, showed the point of departure through the trees at NX 436740
• The same route’s description suggested: “NX438736 Turn up left, beside the tree edge and Benroach Burn”, i.e. about 200m before the mapped route
• WH stalwart nxmjm avoided the issue by driving in far further than we were going to risk, and heading in further north: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=22383
• Fife Flyer and co did the route the opposite way to us, but only four years ago, https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=109572. They came down to the track at NX 435744, marked “Lamachan” on the OS map. That was north of both the Trail mag points and south of nxmjm’s.

So we’d presumably match one of these, or find a 5th. Or we’d be horribly defeated. But if horribly defeated, it would be early on in the walk and we could devise a plan B 😊.

We walked past both Trail magazine’s points with not a hope in hell of getting even off the track, let alone several deceptively painless yards in, which is not unknown in these parts.

010 The Galloway hunt for a firebreak

E had faith, I had less, but he was right, and at Fife Flyer’s map point we can report a nice easy, obvious firebreak.

013 The way we did go

014 The bliss of one fallen tree

015 The deil-o-Lamachan

016 Through the first forestry

Once easily through its first, largest section, we emerged on to the higher forestry track, and barged across the next small section of trees and clearing 'til we rose to the fence-line on Larg’s green shins.

017 Into the - brief - second

018 Arriving at the Larg Hill fence

So that was challenge number one under our belts, and now we could just enjoy the hills, views, sunshine, and expect to see no other people at all. We had pretty much all day before picking up one aged P from her care home and taking her for her daily visit to the other aged P, now on week 13 in hospital.

019 Dark phone of mystery takes a photo

020 Star of Bethlehem - not Grass of Parnassus

021 Heading up Larg Hill

Rising up Larg Hill, the views started to open out. Attractive drystane dyking running up and down Larg Hill was setting everything off to full tasteful. And for E, who’s been taking the brunt of looking after the aged Ps, he was really benefiting from a few hours’ break to “sun oursel’s about the dyke… and whistle ower the lave o’t”, as Burns’ fiddler would have it.

023 Looking S to tree-covered Garlick Hill

The weekend before, we’d explored nearby, revisiting pied flycatchers and wood warblers in the Wood of Cree, and introducing ourselves to the rolling delights of Barclye just to the south rising above the River Cree’s route. We’d been looking up at Larg Hill, so now we could look back at the Cree and its associated landmarks.

025 Castle with Drannandow Farm in front

026 SW over The Thieves hillock to Newton Stewart

027 From C of Fleet to Wood of Cree

Having handrailed a few walls round here, they mostly seem to be built on top of burns and through limb-twisting tussocks, but this one was a comparatively painless pleasure to follow up to the top of the hill, which soon gave on to views of our route ahead and over to the Merrick.

034 Wall towards the summit

035 Over to Lamachan and Curleywee

036 Merrick from Larg Hill summit

Then on up to Lamachan Hill, which I was particularly looking forward to, having had no views at all last time.

039 Me heading to Lamachan from south

The view from the top didn’t disappoint, but it was on dropping down over the brow that it really came into its own, the lochs below the Merrick coming into view up their familiar steps in the landscape.

041 Lamachan wall from Lairg Hill

051 Rhinns of Kells above Loch Dee

055 Merrick Mullwharchar Craiglee - Rhinns r

Always a joy to see familiar places from distanced viewpoints. E declared it the best view he’d ever seen of the Galloway Hills, and I had huge grin on my face, at last seeing what I’d been missing in the clag of 2022.

We supped a cuppa in celebration and enjoyed the ogle. Not for too long though because we’d been in a strong wind since leaving the trees, and it was beginning to feel cold just sitting in it.

I was really looking forward to the next section, over Bennanbrack to Curleywee. It had been a bugger to navigate with no visibility, because it’s quite twisty-turny, but today, its very twisty-turniness was going to be a big part of its attraction. And so it was.

063 Following fenceline to Bennanbrack

066 Merrick - Mullwharchar - Carlins Cairn

070 Curleywee with Millfore behind - ahem

Of course, en route, looking beyond Curleywee, we weren’t really taking in how far away the top of Millfore looked. Ignorance is bliss…

071 E at Bennanbrack cairn

As we approached Curleywee, I could make out White Hill (thanks to the gift of visibility). That was going to be my descent route in 2022, and it looked good, heading down to Loch Dee.

073a Curleywee with White Hill to Loch Dee

Loch Dee itself had been one of the few bits of landscape I could see that day, and it’s another place my eyes keep being drawn to, but my feet haven’t yet reached.
Malcolm Harper in “Rambles in Galloway” (1892) says of it:

Loch Dee is a lonely mountain lake… The district is not opened up by roads, and its interesting character is but little known — its solitudes being seldom trodden save by the shepherd, the sportsman, and the student of nature.

Though now the Southern Upland Way trots past it and forestry lorries probably trundle by, it remains at the southerly end of John Buchan’s fictional No Man’s Land. Maybe one day I’ll just walk in from Craigencallie House.

Anyway, back to Bennanbrack, we were enjoying the easy, scenery-rich broad twisty ridge, and there was a little scramble down to the Nick of Curleywee at the end which I’d forgotten about (or accidentally avoided maybe).

078 Curleywee and Millfore again

080 Nick of Corners Gale view - invisible 2022

081 E emerging from Corner

082 Nick of Corners Gale pano

083 Looking back at scramble down

Then we came to the wall my pal and I had followed down, and by heck it looked like it went on forever! I think the brutal descent from the Rhinns of Kells had blotted out that memory for me. Very glad not to be doing anything like that today.

084 Me approaching wall





The drop down to it also having been a welcome drop out of the cloud, I’m not surprised we’d taken the bail-out option.

This time, however, the top of Curleywee was not going to get away 😊. Up we went, a little steeply, but not for long, and with plenty to look at with each leg-stretch/breather. Ironically, although this translates as the hill in the wind, said wind had dropped, and today we were now down to t-shirts.

088 Curleywee scree and Merrick

089 Curleywee pipit

090 Forestry buildings at Glenhead I think

091 Merrick and lochs from Curleywee

092 Lovely rise to top of Curleywee

093 Over Mulldonoch to Ailsa Craig

094 Ailsa Craig and Kintyre beyond

095 Ailsa Craig zoom

096 Top of Curleywee - no one around

Soon here we were, in Curleywee’s lovely little hollow, looking out over the Rhinns of Kells, the Dungeon Hills, Craiglee and the Silver Flow, all bathed in rare and golden sunlight.

097 Dungeon Range and Rhinns towards Loch Doon

098 Merrick from Curleywee summit

And of course we could see our two tops so far, Larg Hill and Lamachan Hill, along the top of our horseshoe route.

100 Larg Hill and Lamachan from Curleywee summit

101 Our route so far

Now, here, with another cuppa, we had a quick look at the paper map, but it was folded where we really needed to see it opened out. I could see that lower down, the promising looking tracks weren’t on the map as going anywhere useful – just back into half a ton of forestry. And the ridge o’ the “Benwees”, which *should* have made a cracking horseshoe route, looked on the map as though they’d end in typical Galloway-walking tears.

103 Would-be Benwees Lamachan horseshoe

So the thing to do after enjoying Curleywee’s top some more was pick the right way off it and consult the route again at the bottom.

Speaking of bottoms, this was beginning to mean me leaning over the phone screen to cut down the glare, my head pointing basically north and my backside fundamentally - as it were - south, and directing E to follow the line of my a***. I don’t think that approach has made it to a WH topic on navigation. And nor should it…

Anyway, for now, down we went, the “right” way.

104 One last post-brunch look

105 Cree valley and track of temptation

107 Looking back up some Curleywee descent

110 Our further descent to fence

111 Farewell to Curleywee

Down at 400m, we found the track which runs from the head of the White Laggan Burn and meets the head of the Pulnee Burn. We also found a puddle, where various dragonflies and friends were making the most of it.

112 Loup of Laggan - rare water today

113 Broad-bodied chasers

While I watched them for a bit, E set off down the Pulnee Burn track in blissful ignorance until I called him back and we consulted the map again. That track looked as though it went nowhere useful (unless you're after harvesting logs). Reluctantly, E agreed, and put his trust (endearingly ) in me to know where we were going.

116 The track of temptation

After a bit more bum-nav round some wiggles, and a few looks of “oh gawd, really?”, the penny dropped that “those cairns on the skyline” were where we had to head - 700 feet up and well over a kilometre away.
After the initial sinking of heart, I was quite pleased, being in no hurry to get off the hills and looking forward to more views. E…. well, less so, but he bore it with good humour.

117 View north 30 mins later towards Millfore (heading up Millfore, that should read)

118 A lot more up

119 Black Loch - in spite of nav nonsense

120 E on his way up

At one rise, just as you think you’re gaining on the skyline cairns, there’s a huge dip in the contours again, and back you go towards the north. Here you find the White Lochan of Drigmorn. And superb it looks hanging there above Loch Dee, with its small ruin on its north bank.

121 Realising we have to go round

124 White Lochan of Drigmorn above Loch Dee



In fact, this was another part of the route I’d been looking forward to, the little lochans dotted about up here. I’d just thought they were lower down! What I did know was that the last one would be one called, pleasingly, Fuffock .

Above us the Millfore trig came into view. We were very pleased we’d been there in August, because it did feel better leaving it out of our journey today!

128 Zoom to Millfore trig today

And then lo and behold! The little C-shaped lochan, Fuffock, appeared, with a little ledge above it inviting us to partake of a last cuppa.

130 I spy Fuffock

131 Loch Fuffock and viewing snack-seat

So we did, reminiscing about the walk from Black Loch and about various Cree Valley days, illustrated with some more fine views.

133 Black Loch down to the left (different Back Loch - the one with the Eye sculpture for an easier ascent of Millfore)

134 Cree Valley and Wigtown

135 Fuffock pano

Reapplying the midge-repellent, we set off again, following the ridge down until we needed to consult bum-nav again to find out exactly where to aim to re-meet the track.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2r5SLQj]138a We do have paper maps

139 Larg Hill to Curleywee pano from Fuffock-view

142 Pulnee track of temptation still enigmatic

143 Descent from Drigmorn Hill

Bum-nav directed us over the Drigmorn tussocks towards a pylon, and on that bearing, we found a gate.

144 Knackered

145 Last waymarker - under pylon

The gate led to a path, on to the track, over a ford, and then it was just a matter of a couple of miles through birdsong and farmhouses, back to the Achinleck bridge