Walking in the Southern Uplands. Ronald Turnbull

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      Merrick from the granite slabs of Mullwarchar

      In the 1980s Mullwarchar was mooted as a storage point for high level nuclear waste, to be sealed for millions of years in holes drilled deep into its granite lump. Doing anything at all with nuclear waste is a sure-fire vote loser for any party, and the radioactive waste still sits in an evil heap at Sellafield in Cumbria for future generations to deal with.

      Descend southwest to cross the outflow of Loch Enoch. A small wet path leads along the loch’s west shore, rising a little above it to arrive just above its southwest corner. Walkers on the ‘Three lochs’ short-cut, as well as those diverting from Walk 5, join at this point.

      A fence and wall run up from the loch corner in a grassy hollow. At the top of the hollow, head up onto the ridgeline on the left, Rig of Loch Enoch. A small path follows the crest of this southwest, all the way to Buchan Hill.

      A small preliminary cairn is actually the 493m high point, with the main cairn 300 metres further on. The summit ridge bends right, southwest, to a final cairn.

      Slant down southwest. The upper slope of Buchan Hill has low crags called Black Gairy. The southwest direction from the summit leads into a wide grassy gap, with a rough path continuing below.

      Continue slanting southwest, towards Buchan Burn. After some very rough ground near the burn, it may be possible to cross the burn to a well-used path on the western bank, and this leads down to the car park. Alternatively, if the stream is in spate, head straight downhill towards Buchan house to rejoin the track there and head up right to the car park.

WALK 7

      Rhinns of the Kells

      The Rhinns of the Kells is the Southern Uplands’ finest ridgeline. On the left it drops steep and craggy to the Glenkens; on the right it looks into the rugged Galloway heartland. And each of its four hills has its own character – narrow, stony Carlin’s Cairn; huge, sprawling Corserine; the rocky ridgeline of Millfire; and the rough lump of Meikle Millyea.

      The trouble with a line is that its two ends are rather far apart. Walkers with two cars can be clever and get onto the ridge’s northern end from Green Well of Scotland. Otherwise, there’s a bit of guddling about in the plantations to start with. This is the necessary price if Carlin’s Cairn is to be included – perhaps the finest peak of the ridgeline. However, there is a more straightforward route from Forrest Lodge westwards through the trees that gives direct access to Corserine (see ‘Variant’, below).

      Tracks at the car park are more complicated than marked on maps. Take the main track north, crossing another stone bridge with 2 ton weight limit, to the gateway to Forrest Lodge; a statue of a piper is ahead. Bear left here on a rougher track (signed for Nether Forrest and Forrest Lodge). This track is not marked on Landranger and is incorrectly marked on Explorer maps. Pass round to the left of the lodge.

      After 800 metres roughly northeast, reach a T-junction with a major track. Turn up left for 150 metres to another junction. Keep left, and after 300 metres follow the track round to the right at an open shed.

      This wide, smooth timber track runs roughly northeast, then north under the minor crags of Craigmaharb, and then northwest. After a side-track on the left (signed ‘Mykola Lysenko Road’) the main track swings north. Mykola Lysenko was a Ukranian musician. It passes the crumbling shepherd’s house Darnaw in woods to the left, and then bends northwest. There’s a minor side-track on the right, and in another 250 metres the track bends left again. Go on for just 170 metres to turn right down a forest ride just west of north to Polmaddy Burn.

      Cross the burn and head to the corner of the open ground around the former Shiel of Castlemaddy bothy. Little used, sometimes abused, and becoming unsafe, the bothy was demolished in 2011. Pass through a broken wall to the masonry cairn commemorating the bothy demolition. A grassed-over track runs west, then uphill beside a wall and stream (it’s blocked by fallen timber in places) to a forest track. Turn right for 300 metres, then go back sharp left. The forest track runs north through a col west of Craigenwallie, then downhill roughly northeast.

      After 1km downhill, the track levels and bends right (east). Turn down left, between clear-fell (right) and mature trees soon for felling (left), to Halfmark Burn. Turn briefly downstream to crossbelow the Cleugh of Alraith (small gorge), and turn back upstream on a rough quad-bike track for 300 metres to the head of the cleugh, with a small waterfall.

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