Scaw'd Fell

19 May 2011

Participants - Neil and Ben
Where - Scaw'd Fell, 550m/1,805', Sub-2,000' Marilyn, Map 78, NT 149028

I suppose that Scaw'd Fell must be the western outlier of the Ettrick Hills in southern Scotland. I approached it from Moffat, parking the car in a large parking area off the A708 immediately opposite the start of a minor road that goes down to Craigbeck. This is a part of the country that is firmly in conifer central; this is the view from the start of the minor road looking into the area where we would be walking.....

We followed the road for a short distance- as far as the bridge over the Moffat Water- before joining the route of the Southern Upland Way. Initially, the track went through a number of fields. There were cattle but they were at the opposite side of the fields to us so there was no problem. I don't like walking near cattle and I was certainly nervous having Ben with me. More about the cattle later! The path climbed steadily up hill and entered the forest, passing the house at Craigbeck Hope after about a couple of miles. The house seemed to be occupied, there was a vehicle parked at it when we were coming back and the gardens looked well tended. There were occasional breaks in the trees.....

but generally it was simply another forest walk. About a mile after the house, the track started to descend steeply; this was where the map said we should take another track that led off steeply right. This seemed to be newly surfaced and there was a large turning area at its end; maybe this stretch of the forest is to be felled soon. From the turning area, an old track led off left and very soon we were emerging from the trees and getting our first sight of the day's objective.....

There were faint tracks across the moor and it didn't take long to reach the summit. The highest point seemed to be one of the old fence posts that cross the hill at this point.....

There was a cairn a few yards away and about 1m lower; presumably it has been built where it is because it is the viewpoint looking to Dumfries and surrounding area. Here is the cairn, Criffel is the hill on the horizon.....

Views to the north west were of the distant variety.....

but there was a good view of some of the other Ettrick Hills including Croft Head as we went back down the path.....

Then it was back into the forest.....

Just as we were approaching the farm land again, I heard the noise of cows and saw with more than a little dismay that they were coming along the track in our direction. Ben was back on his lead by this time but I didn't fancy getting close to them. However, a saviour was at hand. The car that had been parked at the house sped past, the cows took fright, turned tail and went off at speed in the opposite direction leaving the track clear for us. Only one more field to cross but it also contained cows with calves which were lying quite close to the track as well as some sheep and a llama! However Ben behaved impeccably taking absolutely no notice of any of the livestock which fortunately also decided not to take a close look at us.

I doubt if Scaw'd Fell gets many visitors and if it wasn't on the Marilyn list it would get even fewer. Nevertheless, it was a good leg stretcher and gave me another tick in the book. I reckon that the walk was about 8 miles car to car.