Queensberry

The night before had seen Graeme, Craig and I forego a wet hike up on Ballencleuch Law and instead make an early start into Brattleburn bothy. It was a wise decision on several fronts. The walk from Middlegill to the bothy was dreich enough and it meant we could truly relax for a few hours once we arrived at the bothy at 1430. A few beers, drams, cheese and ham toasties (Diablo vs Aura?) and some good chat while watching bothy TV was a fine way to set us up for the walk into Queensberry the next day. We were rewarded with a fine and cold day, which made the walk very pleasant indeed. After picking up a coffee in Moffat, we drove along the minor road to Beattock and into the car park at the end of the road. we could see the snow-capped peak of Queensberry in the distance.

It was a real treat to leave the heavy packs behind and take the light packs - I took my 10 litre running pack with tailwind and the bare necessaries. We decided to follow the Land Rover track to Lochanhead then head up via the treelike, which was in shade, since this would theoretically be frozen. Oddly, it wasn't as frozen as we would have preferred but we made good progress anyway. Craig rightly shouted at me to slow it down as I was in 'ultra' mode. Not a great fan of wind turbines next to hills stature, I thought they made a decent accompaniment to what otherwise may have seemed a bland approach. The final rise up the summit was through fresh powder snow and typically, as we approached the cairn, the clag descended. We looked for Burleywhag but to no avail. We decided after summit shots, to head over to Harestane Heights and descend that way but we went off in a more Easternly direction and ended up heading back below the crags before a slightly boggy return to the Land Rover track. We were back at the car in about 3 hours - this was my 50th Donald and 66th Graham. A nice, wee jaunt with Graeme and Craig at a much more leisured pace.