South Ayrshire Ramblers to Black Hill by Durisdeer April 2011

Durisdeer Parish Church.

Looking down on a Roman Fort (double click to get effect)

Today's group. I needed a bit more light.

Lowther Hill golf ball aerial. (Tomorrows walk)

Summit of Well Hill 606M



Bothy without a name!



Our abseiler of next week. (See text)

Very steep descent from Black Hill.

Walk Leader is camera shy on the right
Today Saturday April 16 I joined South Ayrshire ramblers on their walk at Durisdeer. For those of you who are saying "where" Durisdeer is a quaint peaceful village in Dumfries and Galloway not too far away from Drumlanrig Castle. 9 of us set off from the church which is in the centre of the village and made our way up to Black Hill (531M). It was quite a steep ascent and fairly got some of us at full stretch early on in the walk. Our walk leader pointed out an old Roman Fort which is best viewed from a height to imagine what it must have looked like all these years ago.At the summit we were buffeted by quite a strong wind as we took in the views of the surrounding hills which included Lowther Hill with its Golf Ball aerial where we will visit tomorrow with ADRC .From this point we lost a fair bit of height only to climb again this time to the summit of Well Hill (606M). Again in the strong wind our walk leader pointed out all the various hills and points of interest. Due to the wind we dropped down off the hill to have lunch at the start of the old Roman Road. At this time one of our younger ramblers explained she was going to Abseil down the side of the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow next Saturday in aid of a Beatson Cancer Charity and she was looking for contributions from the walkers. Everyone made a donation towards her goal of £250 and we wish her well and look forward to seeing the photos in the future.Once lunch was over we found the original Roman Road and made our way down to the actual fort which we had seen earlier on in the walk.From the fort it was a short walk back to the cars in the village to end a fairly short tough "A" grade walk of 6 miles.Thanks again to our walk leader who is becoming an expert on walks in this area and we all look forward to his next venture into the Durisdeer Hills. PS Maybe next time we could take in the Durisdeer Ridge.Watch out for tomorrows blog on the Lowther Hills I have been told in advance that the walk leader is known for her long high climbs on her now  legendry "A" walks. Looking forward to it.