After my amazing day leading on Narnain, I knew I had another decent day of weather on the Sunday. I wasn't going to let that go, so I packed for a light and fast day and got a reasonably early night. On Saturday I was up at 0700, and away just under an hour later, having to scrape the car for the second day in a row. The sun was bright and low on the way down the M74 but the traffic was light and I made it down to Moffat quite quickly. I took care on some icy patches on the wee road out to the Grey Mare's Tail car park and got parked at 0940. I was pretty much ready and it was freezing, so I put on a light insulation layer and started running straight up the steep path to the view of the falls.
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| Grey Mare's Tail |
As soon as was I in sunlight, it was roasting, but I pressed on - the occasional gust reminding me that winter is on the way.
Eventually, I came to the top of the Tail Burn and the outflow of Loch Skeen. It's a very impressive place - a huge corrie loch with a stunning burn flowing out. I met a man carrying a guitar out - "its for a YouTube thing...." and ran past a couple of other walkers on their way in.
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| Loch Skeen and Mid Craig |
I skirted around the side of Loch Skeen and across some very new wooden causeways which traverse over the boggiest bits. From there it got steep up onto the top of Lochcraig Head, where I met a walker and for some reason there was a quad bike. Possibly the farmer gathering some lost sheep.
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| Loch Skeen from Lochcraig Head |
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| And from Talla Nick |
I skirted around the corrie rim and ended up on Mid Craig, which also had some great views down into the valley.
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| View from Mid Craig |
I could see the Eildons on the horizon, and to the south, the high mountains of the Lakes. Such a clear day.
I ran SW towards Donald's Cleuch Head and followed the fence line along to Firthhope Rig, at 800m exactly. I found the tiny cairn, then rejoined the fence line and made for the Corbett that I was here for, White Coomb.
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| Firthhope Rig with Hart Fell on the horizon |
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| White Coomb with Hart Fell |
It was a stunning and wind-free day and no one else was around. Just perfect. I was on the summit at 1145, around 2 hours after starting.
There was a track off which I followed and this took me down to Upper Tarnberry, where I had to regain some height, but it was a pretty rapid drop, then a boggy path down to the burn. I'd had a tip that there were some crossing stones upstream but my shoes were manky and needed a wash, so straight in I went. Hillwalkers will be aghast.
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| In we go! |
I rejoined the main path and was down at the car park pretty quickly (12 minutes!), passing lots of people and saying hello but really concentrating on my foot placement to not trip at speed!
I got to the car park at 1225 and the couple next to me had been watching me run down. We chatted for a while and they were up from Cumbria for some hillwalking. Nice folks.
I headed to Moffat to get some lunch and a steak pie before heading home.
Run Distance: 12.53km
Run Time: 2h 40m
Ascent: 854m
Corbetts Completed: 22
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