Wigtownshire Ramblers.5 Lochs and the Merrick. September 2011

Getting prepared for the walk.

They were the first to reach the summit of Buchan Hill (493M)

"Alone on a hill"

Loch Arron.

On the Rig of Loch Enoch.

Can you see "the grey man's face in the rock"?

Climbing the Merrick.

She has the most wonderful collection of hats.

Me with a bevy of beauties.

At the top of the Merrick(843M)

One of many steep descents.

Todays leader.

On Saturday September 17 I travelled to Glentrool to meet my mother group for a walk around 5 lochs and a climb up the Merrick which is the highest hill in south west Scotland.17 of us set off from Bruces Stone car park on a clear partly cloudy morning to climb our first hill namely Buchan Hill. It was a good climb and we were all on the top fairly quickly where our leader pointed out the various lochs which had come into view. Walking along the Rig of Loch Enoch more commonly known as the Buchan Ridge we saw a young roe deer who was resting in the heather until we came trudging along it bounded off into the distance. Lunch was taken overlooking the loch before the short sharp climb of 300M up to the Merrick. We had a slight rain shower at this point but as we approached the summit the sun tried to make an appearance. Various hills were  identified as the clouds rolled by which made it a little bit different from our normal time here when it is completely shrouded in mist. Over on to Benyellery by the tourist route where most walkers thought we would continue down the normal path passed the bothy. This leader is well known for something a wee bit different when we turned off the path into the soft boggy areas and made our way over to Bennan Hill (562M) which was our last hill today before we began the very steep descent down the hillside back to the cars. The weather forecast was for lots of showers today but for once we were very lucky and only really had some light rain for a while. Thanks to our leader for taking us on a very interesting 10 mile walk albeit not the traditional routes that most of us have done before.