I took this photo at home before we left for the drive to Loch Trool.
We were out for 2 nights taking in a few hills and lochs in the Galloway Forest Park. It took 2 hours to get to the car park just before the Bruce's Stone car park, a long drive but worth it, we had sunshine all the way but it had clouded over a little by the time we got there. In the car park a man with a Scottish accent asked where the start of the Merrick Trail was. I told him a bit further along the road just beyond the Bruce's Stone car park. Beefy and I both laughed again that a Scot was asking me a Geordie for directions. They drove to the next car park a few minutes walk away, we were just pleased to get parked, it was only 9.15 and there were few spaces left. We were doing the Merrick Trail too. We walked along the road past the Bruce's Stone car park which was almost full too then onto the path which was muddy and rocky. Hard to walk on and progress was slow with our heavy packs with 3 days food and camping gear.
Buchan Burn
A look back at our route
The visibility on the drive had been very clear and perfect but a slight haze had set in for the far distance views.
Culsharg Bothy ahead
So far we'd only seen one other couple on the path and they had overtaken us. This wasn't to last though, we discovered Benyellary and Merrick are very popular mountains. We had a peep in the bothy. There was a notice on the door that it was currently closed. There was a broken window but otherwise looked quite clean for a bothy.
We were overtaken by more walkers before we stopped for our early lunch. We felt like we were crawling up, we were struggling carrying the weight for 3 days, it has been a while since we have done more than one night. We chatted to most of the people, nice folk and very friendly
Our lunchtime view
View from the way up Benyellary
The highest mountains are Curleywee and Lamachan Hill (I think). I hope I don't get these mountains wrong so please be gentle if I do.
On Benyellary summit
The wind was quite strong as we gained height and it was really cold when the sun went in. It had clouded over even more now so it was more in than out.
Merrick from Benyellary
Loch Neldricken is the loch on the left
I could see hills in the far distance and I thought these must be the Lake District fells
View over the wall from Benyellary
I think this is the Isle of Arran, at first I'd thought it was the Mournes but this was looking north west so it can't have been.
Looking back to Benyellary from the way up Merrick
Ailsa Craig and The Mull of Kintyre
Approaching Merrick summit
There were a lot of people about, not quite as busy as a fell in the Lakes would be on a bank holiday Saturday but more people than we are used to since we started popping over the border. On the way up Merrick we chatted again to a lovely Scottish guy who we'd seen earlier when he overtook us on the way up. He mentioned he'd been out camping a few weeks ago when we had our summer
It did have a real winter feel to it in that wind, it was bitter. Great bloke to talk to and his dog was adorable
View over Mullwarchar to the Rhinns of Kells
The loch in view is Loch Doon. Apt name we thought for the present times
Mullwarchar, Dungeon Hill and Craignairny are the hills in the foreground
Craignaw and Craiglee are the hills behind the lochs
We would be doing these the next day. We began a pathless descent down Merrick via Redstone Rig. There had been paths so far, mostly good but now the terrain got rougher the further we descended. We saw no other people for the rest of the day, they disappeared when the paths did!
Loch Enoch from the descent
Tough terrain to descend
We had to zig zag to avoid craggy outcrops, not a route to do in the clag we thought. It was very slow going because the grass was long and the ground was very uneven too so each step had to be thought out very carefully.
Lock Enoch in view from further down the descent
Looking back at the route down to Loch Enoch
Craignaw in view
We wandered around the hills near Loch Enoch and got onto Craig Neldricken and we tried to find a pitch that was out of the wind that was still blustery.
Lock Neldricken and Loch Arron
We found a decent enough pitch with this view, not bad!
Merrick from near our pitch
The MSR above Loch Neldricken
We got some water from a nearby pool and had our tea. It was later than we thought we would pitch, the walk had taken 7 hours including our lunch stop, about 1mph, but the terrain really slowed us down. We had some wine and didn't really get a good sunset, the ball of the sun went down behind Benyellary. It was too bright to take good photos and we didn't get a red glow. I've seen photos of the sunset view that others got and it was really nice, it was hidden from view for us, it must have all happened behind Merrick and Benyellary.
Day 1 was car park before Bruce's Stone - Culsharg Bothy - Benyellary - Merrick - Redstone Rig - Craig Neldricken 6 miles, 877m of ascent, 465m descent.
Day 1 route map