Sanquhar to Dalreen Pass: E2 Day 44

A few moorland mountains climbed today, great views and lunch at Wanlockhead Lead Museum.

Getting out of bed, stiff, struggling to get upright I wonder if I will manage to walk today, but after a few exercises to warm up, legs were functioning again. Is this just getting old, have I overdone my hiking, will I become progressively less flexible? Putting these thoughts aside I enjoyed a good breakfast and then started on the first of the three summits I would cross this morning, mingling with the dog walkers (who I soon left behind).

A little way uphill out of Sanquhar there was a monument to a hundred years of "Riding the Marches" at Sanquhar, an annual practice in which people ride their horses around the boundary of their local area. The practice commemorates when the boundaries of a clan were patrolled to protect against "reivers" stealing their cattle.

Stream cutting down into an older landscape.

All the mountains I crossed today were bereft of trees, mostly coarse moorland grass and reeds. The paths were good and I made steady progress, admiring the way streams had cut small, steep sided valleys into an older, more rounded landscape. Fortunately I have recovered from the tiredness of yesterday and made steady progress reaching Wanlockhead village in time for lunch. Evidence of the historic lead mining was present throughout the valley leading up to the village. Piles of mining waste and the ruins of old buildings where the ore was treated to separate the shiny, silvery mineral "galena" (lead sulphide) from the associated rock. Information boards explained what once happened at each location. Near the village there was an old beam pump, used to lift water from the mine, which I admired from an old tramway that the Southern Upland Way followed. A visit to the Lead Mining Museum was recommended by my guidebook, so I started at the café for lunch, then looked around the exhibits describing (among many other things) how children were used to sort the ore.

Remains of a lead smelter.

After a welcome visit to the toilet, I began the long climb up to the "golf ball" radar station on Lowther hill. Used for Air Traffic Control I read it has recently been upgraded to mitigate the "clutter" caused by the many wind turbines currently in the area and the new ones expected in the future. A steep climb but rewarded by the wide view over many surrounding mountains. Corries, carved out by small glaciers, now long gone, were highlighted by the angle of the sun. Near the top a waymark post had a plaque explaining where the nearest defibrillator was located - it was at the lead mining museum at the bottom of the hill, not much help if the steep climb had brought on a heart attack! More useful was a little cabin which gave walkers shelter from the wind and weather. Its logbook showed it was much appreciated.

"Golf ball" air traffic control radar on top of Lowther Hill.

View from cabin at corries on a nearby mountain.

After Lowther Hill I had two more summits and some steep ascents and descents. On one descent I met a hiker walking the Southern Upland Way in the opposite direction, so we stopped to chat. He asked if I was a member of the LDWA (Long Distance Walkers Association), which of course I am being a Long Distance Walker, and also if I was collecting the Southern Upland Way "coins". These are specially minted coins or "Waymerks" hidden in "kists" on the route. He had several but I had not looked for any, not knowing what to do with them if I found them, although maybe one day these unique curiosities will be valuable.

Now camped in forestry on an old track, I have confirmed that heavy rain and high winds are forecast from 7:00 am tomorrow. Packing up my tent and belongings in such conditions would be difficult, the tent's canvas flapping madly and everything getting wet, so I want to be up early and ready to go before then.