Area: Lowther Hills, Dumfries and Galloway
An obscure microrange tucked away in the south-west between Galloway and the Southern Uplands proper. But despite its obscurity it wasn't my first visit - I came here for the 2007 OMM, a learning experience which went fairly well until Gary got a touch of hypothermia and we packed it in before day two began. Today, by contrast, the weather was delightful, cold, sunny and frosty as we drove up the Mennock Pass from our hotel in Dumfries (Caerlavarock yesterday, somewhere I've wanted to visit in November for decades). Kate was up for a hillwalk, and I was resting before tomorrow's high-pressure race in Glasgow, so an amble up the Southern Upland way was ideal. Misty at first as we set off from Wanlockhead, famously the highest village in Scotland, a somewhat counterintuitive fact, but a fact nonetheless. It's an atmospheric and very quiet lead mining village, and the path heads up between a weaving private road. That gives a clue to what awaits at the summit, a giant radar station. This was doubly weird today, as the mist didn't clear - so why saw a glint of light and then the giant golfball appeared in front of us through the mist! I was confident it would clear eventually, so we took in the side road (literally a tarmac road) to Green Lowther, which has additional masts and other unsightly hardware, before returning to the golf ball - and on the return it did finally clear, some spectacular effects as the mist peeled away and views opened out across to Galloway west and Tinto east, which is always recognisable (I jogged up it 4 or 5 years ago). A very pleasant ambling descent with Kate, although my hands were frozen, red raw.
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