Читать книгу Walking in the Southern Uplands. 44 best hill days in southern Scotland онлайн

34 страница из 58

Ailsa Craig north end, with remains of a foghorn tower

The ascent of the island is straightforward, if strenuous. From the pier, head across the island’s small patch of level ground onto a path that slants steeply up left. It zigzags back right to reach the ruined Castle of Ailsa, perched a third of the way up the slope.

Gulls nest alongside the path as it slants up to the right, working up the eastern slope of the island then straight uphill to the trig point, with its magnificent view.

If the summit is in cloud, a compass bearing is useful to ensure you head down the correct slope. Directions other than east lead to a lot of seagulls and possibly a messy and dung-smeared death.

Return down the small path to the cottages near the pier.

A former tramway along the shoreline allows a strangely horizontal walk towards either of the massive abandoned foghorns seen from the cruise around the island.

WALK 3

Cairnsmore of Fleet

Start/Finish Cairnsmore Hill car park (NX 463 632) Distance 14.5km (9 miles) Ascent 750m (2500ft) Approx time 5¼hrs Terrain Hill path, rough grassy plateau and slope, moorland track Max altitude Cairnsmore of Fleet, 711m Maps Landranger 83 (Newton Stewart); Explorer 319 (Galloway S) Public transport Bus 500/X75 (Dumfries–Stranraer) stops at Palnure Parking Turn off A75 at Muirfad, 800 metres east of Palnure. The minor road bends left across a stream and between piers of a former rail bridge. Ahead 300 metres is a ‘P’ sign – parking is in the disused track on the right.

Cairnsmore of Fleet is the southernmost 2000ft (600m) summit in Scotland, and its isolated position above the Solway Firth explains its wide views, and also the memorial to crashed aeroplanes at the summit. Cairnsmore is also a high-altitude bog of national importance. However, that area – with granite and peat as austere as Craignaw (Walk 6) – lies to the north of the summit. This gentler route is on comfortable grass, with a mysterious old path (perhaps formed by peat cutters) zigzagging up the wide slope above the lowlands of the Cree.