Southern Upland Way: The Lowther Hills

Friday 26th May 2023

When I reached the village of Sanquhar the previous day I asked at the Tolbooth Museum about possible camping locations and I was directed to Newark Farm where the proprietor, the lovely Francis Barbour, offered me bed and breakfast instead and the temptation of a shower and a comfortable bed proved impossible to resist. The previous night I had camped surrounded by millions of midges, which had left me traumatised and covered in bites, so I was grateful for the chance to recover and, after a lovely night and an even lovelier breakfast, I set off from Sanquhar. The weather was again stunning with hardly a cloud in the sky and I reflected about how extraordinarily lucky I have been with the weather in Scotland in recent years, just not at Easter in the Yorkshire Dales. A steady climb took me out of Sanquhar up grassy hills and between Conrig Hill and Willowgrain Hill before descending to the delightful Cogshead, which is a quiet, secluded valley. Hidden there on the trail is a hoard of treasure revealed by the word “ultreia” on the trail post coming down into the valley, but I could not find any sign of the kist that contains the specially minted coins for the Southern Upland Way that should be at Cogshead. When I reached the word “ultreia” on the other side of the valley I dumped my bag and retraced my steps to hunt for the treasure, but eventually I had to give up. This was the second kist on the Southern Upland Way that I had not been able to find, but I was happy with the ones that I had found so far and at least it won’t add to the weight of my rucksack!

Soon, I was climbing out of the valley again and over the grassy hills north of Glengaber Hill before descending on an excellent well-graded path that took me into the valley of Wanlock Water with the village of Wanlockhead, the highest in Scotland, clearly in view. At the bottom I slowly made my way up the valley passing the relics of lead mining that used to be carried out in this area. Information boards described what used to happen in the valley and I stopped to read them all, fascinated by the industry, and the labour intensive process that was required to extract the lead. The track became a road and after a while the Southern Upland Way branched off onto the route of an old tramway that took me up into Wanlockhead. This is a fascinating area, which would merit spending some time there. The official schedule for the trail stops at Wanlockhead after walking just eight miles specifically to give you time to explore, but I wanted to keep going, though a return visit would be a very good idea. I passed through the village and was struck by its Alpine feel due to being the highest village in Scotland, which I was seeing at its best in fabulous weather. I’m sure it doesn’t look so appealing when the mist in down. I continued to climb up the hill, out of the village and towards the golf ball, a radar station, at the top of Lowther Hill.

The views got better and better in all directions, across the Lowther Hills, as I climbed. My attention soon moved away from the views over Wanlockhead to those north towards Shortcleuch Reservoir, east towards the top of Lowther Hill and south down the Mennock Pass. I slowly continued the climb, crossing the access road for the radar station several times, while the view prompted me to stop many times to take pictures until eventually I turned to pass just the south of the summit of Lowther Hill and cross the slopes past a metal box-shelter, known as the lunchbox. This is the highest point on the Southern Upland Way, easily beating the previous highest point so far, on Benbrack, by about a hundred and fifty metres. There were extensive views south into wide, tree-filled Nithdale while east the Lowther Hills continued over a complex range of grassy hills. The views north-east were less appealing across the vast Clyde Wind Farm where hardly any of the turbines were turning. When the weather is as good as this it is fabulous to be at the top of a hill and to take in the awesome views. The path took me slowly down the hill before climbing up to the top of Cold Moss and along the ridge to descend to another col where a final climb took me up Laght Hill.

Half way up I came across a trail post with the word “ultreia” hidden at the bottom, which I thought was rather sneaky as the word is usually at the top of the post, just underneath the trail symbol, so I kept my eyes peeled, but all I could see was the broken wall beside the path. Eventually I reached the top of the hill and there I found the kist with its hoard of coins, however with hindsight I have realised that the coin I took should have been at Cogshead, so maybe both hoards were there? I’ll have to return sometime. The trail continued over the hill and steeply down to reach a road, which was fast, but quiet and eventually I left the road to cross fields and reach the Potrail Water. After crossing a bridge I stopped and threw up my tent beside the burn in a lovely spot not far from the edge of a conifer plantation. I had been feeling as if my wild camping spots so far on this holiday had not been very enjoyable, especially the night before Sanquhar when I was besieged by midges, but this site was recommended by the ramblingman.org.uk website and in this weather it was divine. And there were no midges! This was an amazing walk as it was great to up high on the Lowther Hills in sensational weather and Wanlockhead was interesting so it would merit a return visit and that was the first time I’d thought that on this trail.