Set out down to Lowther on Saturday to actually ski the hill in daylight - however when I got out of the van, as well as being bitterly cold, it was pretty obvious that the wind had blasted a lot of the snow away which had lain the week before - the few remaining patches, in the gullies and slightly more sheltered hollows, looked barely skiable. I debated in my head, whilst listening to the first half of Stoke vs Man City, the merits of taking the skis with me, just to have a go at the largest gully, just down from the summit - but just before Stoke scored, I turned off the radio, donned normal walking boots and headed up the rock solid Southern Upland Way.
The view from the summit is a wide one - Tinto to the North, the Moffat Hills, South-East and a highland-looking glen immediately South. I expected to see over to Arran in the West but the frozen lump of East Mt.Lowther and the setting winter Sun stole the view. The wind on Lowther's summit was truly fierce, so I sheltered in the lee of the golf-ball radar station before walking, half surfing the wind down to the lower transmitting tower and the narrow grassy ridge over to Green Lowther - this is where the wind was at its strongest - hood-up, goggles on, this was winter walking at it's finest!
Wanlockhead has Scotland's highest pub (Wanlockhead Inn), so when I got back down to the village (rows of small white cottages with smoky chimneys, windswept, empty streets, a shut lead mining museum and SYHA hostel and a bored looking dog chained to a wall), I thought I'd pay it a visit, managing enough shrapnel for half a McEwans 60 - the beer was nice but the tartan carpet was giving me irrational panic attacks and the sudden desire to leave!
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