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Where: Corserine to Meikle Millyea, from
Forest Lodge, Dumfries & Galloway
When: September 20th 2012
Who: I Parker
Why: Good weather so a day out
Weather: Sunny spells, rain, hail and
rainbows
Height: 2,671ft / 814m
Distance: About 12 miles, 7 hours
The Forest Estate is about 34 miles
southeast of Ayr off the A713. The entrance
to the estate is about 7 miles south of
Casphairn, 2 miles north of Dalry, with
signs at the entrance stating Forest
Estate.
This is a good scenic, single track, tar
road with many passing places.
The range here is known as the Corserine
range or Rhinns of Kells, containing from
the north, the 1,732ft Black Craig, 2,043ft
Coran of Portmark, 2,011ft Bow, 2,162ft
Gairnsgarroch, 2,280ft Meaul, 2,648ft
Carlin's Cairn, 2,671ft Corserine, 2,034ft
Meikle Craigtarson, 2,349ft Millfire,
2,421ft Milldown, and 2,457ft Meikle
Millyea.
This photo tour shows the route up the
southeast ridge of Corserine, then south
across to Millfire, south to Milldown, then
down the east side of Meikle Millyea.
The image below is from the Forest
Estate road with Corserine in the distance.
Forest Estate
Road Map
Large Hill
Route Map
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The image below is of The Green House 2
miles along the estate road. This is a
Natural Power Organization.
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After 3 miles from the start of the
estate road, you reach the hiking car park
with seating areas, as seen below. There is
a map here that shows the roads throughout
the forest to the hills. Many of the roads
are named after people.
There is a sign here that states: if any
cars are left in the car park after 8
o'clock, the estate management will report
the owners as being lost in the hills or
forest, and may need rescuing. Even though
the trails are marked, it is best to carry
an OS map as there are many other forest
roads here that you can take a wrong turn
onto and get lost.
The road straight ahead is the Professor
Hans Heiberg Road. This road is normally
used out to, or on the road back from the
most southern hill on this range, Meikle
Millyea.
The main tourist trail to Corserine
leads off to the right in this image on a
well marked path. This car park is about
330 feet above sea level.
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The map below shows two east side trails
up Corserine, the trail in blue is the
tourist trail up past Loch Harrow and up
the northeast ridge.
This photo tour is going up the steeper
southeast ridge of Corserine past the south
side of Loch Harow. Time wise, these two
east side routes to the top of Corserine
are about the same.
Larger
Map
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On the road round to Corserine, over to
your right through the trees, you will see
a figurehead, as seen below, at the
entrance to the Forest Lodge. This
figurehead is from the Fred Olsen passenger
liner named the Black Watch that was sunk
during the Second World War. The ship was
operated on the Newcastle - Oslo route.
The estate must have connections to the
Fred Olsen cruise line, explaining why many
of the forest roads have Scandinavian
names.
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The forest road to Corserine heads up
into the forest past a white house, as seen
below.
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After about half of a mile to a mile
past the white house, your reach a road on
the left with a sign stating Birger Natvig
Road. The image below is from walking down
Birger Natvig Road, and looking across Loch
Harrow to the Corserine southeast
ridge.
The forest road runs all the way round
to a short forest break, next to a small
quarry. I hiked up through the trees on the
left side of the forest break, then took
the route as seen below, there are a number
of routes that can be taken. I find the
steepest routes give the best pictures, and
are normally the driest. There was about 50
yards of tussocks between the forest and
the little hillock, that was not the best
hiking, but from then on it was good going,
although steep in places.
If you want to take an easier route up,
follow the blue signs up past this road to
the northeast ridge Tourist Trail. The two
ridges are similar, but the northeast ridge
has a path leading up where there are no
really steep parts, just steadily steep
most of the way. Tour of the Tourist Trail.
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The image below is looking down from
close to the top of the first ridge,
looking back down to the forest break and
Loch Harrow.
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The image below is from the top of the
first ridge looking at the route up to the
second ridge. I went straight up here but
there are a number of less direct
routes.
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The view below is from close to the top
of the second ridge, looking down to loch
Harrow and the forest road leading round
the south side of the loch.
Large
Image
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The view below is from a cairn on the
southeast ridge looking to Corserine
summit.
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The image below is from about half way
between the southeast ridge cairn and
Corserine summit, looking back down from an
aircraft crash site. This crash site is
said to be the one of a Second World War de
Havilland Mosquito.
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The image below is from another aircraft
crash site on the north side of Corserine,
by the route over to Carlin's Cairn. This
crash site is said to be of a Second World
War Avro Anson. It takes about 1 hour to
hike over to the 2,648ft Carlin's Cairn and
back. There are 4 other hills north of
Carlin's Cairn above 2,000ft, those are
normally hiked from the Old Lead Mines at
Carsphairn.
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The image below is from Corserine Trig
Point looking south to Millfire, Milldown
and Meikle Millyea. The route across these
hills is fairly straight forward with all
the danger on the east side, if visibility
is poor.
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The view below is when hiking across to
Millfire. Note the high drops on the east
side of Millfire, about 1,200 feet.
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The view below is the north side of
Millfire, about 300ft from the lowest part
of the crossing to the summit.
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The image below is from the cairn on
Millfire looking south to Milldown and
Meikle Millyea. It is about a 200 feet hike
up to Milldown from the lowest part of the
crossing.
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The image below is of the rocky east
side of Milldown. This looks a challenging
hike up, about 1,300 feet of picking your
way up between the rocks.
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The image below is looking back from
Milldown to Corserine and the steep route
up the rocky east side of Millfire, about
1,200 feet.
Large
Image.
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The image below is from the cairn on
Milldown looking south to Meikle Millyea.
On the left of Meikle Millyea summit is a
cairn and Trig Point, and on the right is a
cairn, said to be at the highest point. It
is about a 350 feet hike up to the summit
from the lowest point on the crossing.
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The image below is from Trig Point on
Meikle Millyea looking back at Milldown,
Millfire and Corserine. About 500 yards
southwest of this point is another cairn,
said to be on the highest point on Meikle
Millyea.
The southwest cairn gives good views
over the hills on the south side of Loch
Trool, such as the 2,211ft Curleywee and
2,352ft Lamachan, that have an interesting
ridge between them.
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The image below is going down the east
side of Meikle Millyea following a stone
dyke/fence. There is a path all the way
down next to the dyke. This is a long way
down, or up if you do the route from this
side first.
You can just see a white farm house in
the image below that you pass on the way
back to the car park, and Forest Lodge in
the trees just beyond the white farm
house.
Large
Image
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The image below is from the lower ridge
on the route down the east side of Meikle
Millyea. The path follows the dyke all the
way down, or close to the bottom, another
path leads over to this steep way down. The
stile leads to a short forest break that
has a few trees laying across it, so takes
a bit of a detour round the trees to reach
the forest road.
The road down to the right, past the
watch tower, is the Professor Hans Heiberg
Road. This road leads back to the Forest
Lodge car park, about 2 and a half miles.
The Professor Hans Heiberg Road leads
straight to the car park, best not to turn
onto any other roads on the way.
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This was a fairly tough hike of about
3,100 feet, when adding up the hike onto
Corserine, taking into acount the car park
is about 330 feet above sea level, and
adding the hikes between the other three
hills. This route probably averages about 7
hours. I tend to take longer as I normally
have to wait around a lot to get sunny
pics, and like exploring many of the sub
peaks.
Some hikers take on the whole range in
one day by getting dropped off at the north
end of the range, at either Drumjohn or the
Old Lead Mines by Casphairn, and getting
picked up at the Forest Lodge car park. The
Corserine range north hills photo tour
gives more information on the whole range.
Large Route
Map
Photo Tour of
Corserine range north hills.
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