Green Lowther surreality

I made a last minute decision to stop web-surfing and go walking. An hour's easy drive down the M74 saw me at purportedly the highest village in Scotland, Wanlockhead. It was distinctly colder at 470m. The oddity of this hill is that there is a tarmac'd road the whole way to the top. It thus makes for an easy if not slightly surreal ascent as I kept thinking cars were coming up behind me. Instead of making for the Graham itself, I took in East Lowther and the 2nd Donald of the day before making my way over to the trig point. I'm not sure I'm bagging the Donalds but I've done 19 of them so I suppose I should add them on. I do like the rolling aspect of the hills down here and the solitude is at times un-nerving especially when you sit below the artificial constructs and the wind whistles through. The drive from the M74 along to Wanlockead was delightful, a real driver's road. Nice wee afternoon stroll done in 2.5 hours with a drop down to the reservoir from Green Lowther to make a nice wee circuit.

Beinn na Cloiche after Staoineag bothy

This trip meant omitting the car for once and it was great to take the train with Craig. This hill would be the meat in the sandwich of my 200th Munro and William's Leap, a Corbett en route to the return train. It's a lovely wee hill from the bothy and the steep ascent at the start means you are nicely warmed up with fantastic views over to the Mamores and the Ben. There's quite a large loch about 1km before the summit and it could be very boggy. Fortunately, we were up early and the ground was still frosty. The cairn was tiny, a sure sign that not many people wander this way. It was a biting wind and we motored East and down to the Loch before our re-ascent on to Leum Illieum. In terms of isolation, it would be very hard to beat this.