Cairnsmore of Fleet, Galloway
Do you need some wilderness in your life this spring? Then check out this route that makes more of Galloway’s Cairnsmore.
Cairnsmore of Fleet is the southernmost hill of Scotland. As such it has outstanding views along the Galloway coast, and across the sea to England, Ireland and the Isle of Man. Well, that’s on a nice day. But on a nasty one – a soggy day of low cloud and late spring snow – it’s time for the other side of Cairnsmore...
The side that’s described as an outstanding high landscape of bare granite, rough grasses and tiny pools. The side where paths are tiny, or not there at all, and it takes some cunning with the compass. And where you listen, in the mist, to hear the tiny Coo Lochans lapping against the granite. It’s the dwarf shrub heath, where the hen harrier and short-eared owl are making their first return to these hills. And with them, this spring, hopefully come post-Covid walkers desperate for a couple of kilometres of serious wilderness.
The sunny side of Cairnsmore is a comfortable path up from the south-west, near Newton Stewart. But the way that’s best for a bad day – the way that’s maximum Cairnsmore – is the rugged northern side. Murray’s Monument beside the wild goat park is your supersize startpoint marker.