Exploring; Lowther Hills...

Saturday i was out biking again with an invite to go explore with friends down in the Lowther Hills around Wanlockhead, a pleasant 65 mile drive to the southwest picking up friend Andrew through some nice countryside and passing through the old market town of Bigger. clear skys were overhead as we drove through Leadhills village with its stunning old miners cottages to meet friends Ian and Mark at Wanlockhead.
you would think the highest village in Scotland would be in the Highlands somewhere but its here!...

The Village has a mining museum too...

we left the village climbing up the Southern Upland Way...

then climbed on a tarmac service road for the transmitter masts and the huge Golf ball radar thing on the skyline on Lowther Hill,the road is closed to public vehicles...



onto the service road...love to see someone going down this on a longboard!...

some jumping gears allowed a rest and to soak up the scenery...

red and yellow armco!...

and Kilmarnock bricks...

we turned off the service road to contour across the hill...above one of the huge transmitters...

and the giant golf ball radar thing..place has a cold war look about it...

heading for a descent off of the ridge of East Mount Lowther the scenery was stunning with the heather and ferns an Autumn bronze in in the sun...

and our climb was rewarded with this brilliant descent above a vally...

marked on the map as Lang Cleuch (means long summer pasture )the singletrack was 6" wide in places...we renamed it `no left turn`...you didnt want to drop off the side for sure...we all made it down ok...


heres some film of the descent...



along the vally floor now and there was plenty of stream crossings...


back up the vally behind that huge radar ball looked like a new moon rising...

a chat with a walker reveiled the unlikely hood of cycling up a small glen on our intended loop...with the fore warning advised we headed to see for ourselves...
its name of dead mans cleuch should have told us something...

down into the glen we went...

very pleasant so far...

then the sides started to close in a bit...

a puntured ripped tyre on Andrews bike was repaired while we had lunch in the sun then the workout began...well we had been warned!...

no path now so had to scramble carrying bikes on whatever side was easiest...

then the sides got steep...

then they got REALLY steep...

the view up to where i took the above picture...

thirsty work but no shortage of water...

after here it got easier...luckily we all made it up without a slip...


reaching a trail on the other side we were knackerd!, that climb out was a mile long...Andrews ripped tyre was getting worse and we had mech problems with Ians bike so would have to cut the day short at the next public road,was also now 3pm...
stunning scenery though as we followed the track...

which passed a ruin farm house...

went in for a look around...




newspapers in a cupboard were dated 1979...

wonder if the phone number is still in use?...

heading down the vally a rough track would lead to the public road...
some locals...

some film of getting through that gorge...




ripped tyre was getting worse so we headed for the cars but not after an uphill 8 km ride into a strong headwind!...

but what a great days riding with friends...theres more than Lead and gold in those hills...alot more exploring for us down there and only an hours drive...think i will revisit with the pugsley and go take a closer look at that big giant golf ball radar up on the hill...