Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells

The hills of Galloway are something of an acquired taste. Much of the land here is blanketed with sitka spruce and where it is not, the running is often hard, granite outcrops and tussocks the dominant features. Corserine offers something a little different - in fact the Rhinns of Kells ridge gives remarkably easy, fast running and affords extensive views across The Merrick and The Awful Hand. Commercial forestry and the inevitable, tiresome stone tracks dominate the lower slopes, rising almost to the crest of the ridge itself in places, starkly white wind turbines crowding the view north.

Yet, in spite of all, the summit of Corserine remains wild and windswept, the open plateau reaching vainly towards sea and sky. I stayed a while, looking south to the Lakeland fells half hidden in a distant haze, and then to the Corbetts of Arran, reminiscing on the days spent on these and those hills between.