The walk: Criffel, Dumfries & Galloway

Distance: 4 miles/6.5km

Time: 2-3 hours

IT was good to leave the confines of the forest and see the two summits of the hill rise before me. Criffel is not a high hill but gives a perception of being much bigger than its 1877ft/569m.

Criffel rises steeply above the Solway Firth and the Nith Estuary so adding to its impression of height. Its broad bulk is an obvious landmark when viewed from the tops of the Lakeland Fells in the south.

For much of the way up through the forest I had been kept company by the tumultuous course of the Craigrockall Burn – a testament to the amount of rain that had fallen in the previous few days and, unfortunately, the footpath to the summit had suffered much the same fate.

The upper slopes of Criffel rose on the left with the subsidiary top of Knockendoch to the right as I broke away from the foaming burn and followed the waterlogged path up to the summit cairn and trig pillar. Unusually the cairn is named – Douglas’s Cair – and is believed to date from the Bronze Age. The name Criffel comes from the Norse kraka-fjell or krakkaval, which means raven’s hill, the sacred bird of Scandinavia.

The ascent of Criffel makes a good introduction to the hill walking game and provides a fairly stiff afternoon’s walk with the reward of extensive views from the summit on a good day.

The Lowther, Moffat and Ettrick hills are all visible to the north-east and across the flats of the Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve and the waters of the Solway Firth rise the rounded shapes of the Lake District fells. Snaefell, the highest hill on the Isle of Man, can just be spotted in the far distance in very clear conditions.

Just north of Criffel lies the village of New Abbey, renowned for Sweetheart Abbey. This ancient Cistercian building, one of three in the Galloway area, was founded by John Balliol’s widow Devorgilla in 1273. Passionately devoted to her husband she was broken-hearted when he died in 1269 and had his body embalmed and his heart placed in a small, silver enamelled ivory casket which she carried with her everywhere.

When she died in 1290, she and the casket were buried together in the church that she had founded.

The monks of the time, touched by her devotion, took the name Dulce Cor, or Sweetheart, for the abbey. Her son John Balliol was appointed King of Scotland by Edward I of England and reigned for four years. From the summit I followed the path north to Knockendoch. Away below me, just beyond the skirts of the forest, lay the ruffled waters of Loch Kindar. The loch contains a crannog, a man-made island which once held a roundhouse and is believed to date from around the 1st century AD.

From Knockendoch I slithered down wet, grassy slopes back to where the Craigrockall Burn disappears into the forest. By the time I reached my car at Ardwall Farm the water was oozing from my boots.

Cameron McNeish

ROUTE PLANNER

Map: OS 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 84 (Dumfries & Castle Douglas)

Distance: 4 miles/6.5km

Time: 2-3 hours

Start/Finish: Car park at Ardwall Farm on the A710, 3km south of New Abbey (GR: NX 970635).

Transport: Houstons bus 372 from Dumfries passes Ardwall. Details from www.houstonscoaches.co.uk (01576 203814).

Information: Dumfries TIC (01387 253862), www.visitscotland.com/destination-maps/dumfries-galloway

Route: From the car park a large gate gives access to a track. After a short distance a signpost on the rights points out the route to Criffel. Follow this track to its end where a gate leads into the forest. The track follows the line of the Craigrockall Burn all the way through the forest and on to the open moorland. Once clear of the forest, follow the obvious, and often boggy, path to Criffel’s summit cairn and trig pillar. From the summit follow the path NW then N to Knockendoch. From there, descend SE to meet the Craigrockall Burn where it emerges from the forest and then follow your outward route back to Ardwall Farm.

All walks are subject to current restrictions