Cairnsmore of Fleet

Peak: Cairnsmore of Fleet (711m)
Area: Galloway, Southern Uplands
Evening arrival in Creetown. Abysmal weather of low cloud and driving rain, glowering skies, empty farmhouses, daylight limited, the full foreboding Galloway atmosphere and a memorable run. Cairnsmore of Fleet is a huge whaleback of a hill, the most southerly 2000ft mountain in Scotland. This was right at the start of an impromptu trip with Peter, and my first ever visit to Galloway (although I'd been to the nearby Lowther Hills in the 2007 OMM). From the start, north of Creetown, we set a good pace (necessarily given the lateness and the conditions) through dank woods and open fields to gain the extensive Bardrochwood. The path is excellent throughout, even when the open moor is gained, although torrents of water cascaded down it along its entire length. The wind picked up and the temperatures dropped as we ran across the exposed summit, which is enormous, more like a plateau. An exhilarating descent into the teeth of the gale, which we both thoroughly enjoyed and therefore kept the decent pace ticking over: we got back to the car around 90 minutes after leaving it. An evening spent in the time-warped Ellangowan hotel, eating steak pie in the deserted dining room with fizzy lager (the only option), was an appropriate coda.