ADRC. Craignaw and the Devils Bowling Green September 2011

Today was also the Merrick annual race.
P.S. This walker did not win!!!!!

Coffee stop at the Gairland Burn.

Some of us found difficulty in crossing the burn.

Including this young lady.

Loch Arron with Benyellery in the background.

Memorial to American Airmen (see text)

Parts of the airplane can still be seen.

Today's group on the summit of Craignaw (645M)

More very steep descents were undertaken by the walkers.

Me on the Devils Bowling Green.

Even managed a close up!!

On Sunday 18 September it was back to Glentrool to walk with ADRC to Craignaw and the devils bowling green which is a large granite slab left over from the glacial age.On a nice sunny morning 20 walkers made their way up the side of the Gairland Burn to Loch Valley where we had our first break to admire the hills which were silhouetted on the calm water of the loch. Our next obstacle was a burn crossing where several different ways of getting over were demonstrated by the group some successful others a wee bit more unsuccessful.As usual no names will be mentioned.Our first climb took us up to Snibe Hill before the final asscent onto Craignaw.(645M). On our way up the leader showed us the memorial stone erected in memory of two american airmen whose F-11 aardvark airplane crashed in 1979 wreckage from the plane is still visible today.At the summit we had our lunch stop where one of the group pointed out various landmarks which we could see. Isle of man,Northern Ireland,Mull of Kintyre and away in the far north Ben Lomond was also identified making for super visibility today.Steep descent took us down to an area known as the devils bowling green with its large area of flat granite. Some fun was had here rolling small round boulders across the imaginery green! Further minor scrambling was encountered on our way down to Loch Neldricken  where a famous murder hole is situated. This one was mentioned in a book called "The Raiders" by Galloway author  by S.R.Crocket.We now retraced our route back down the slippy Gairland Burn path  to the cars to end this 9 mile walk of the Galloway Hills. Thanks to the leader for taking us all on a very interesting and somewhat challenging walk on a crisp clear Autumn day.