Carsphairn and Scaur Hills

Being much more readily-accessible and in general considerably less challenging than the neighbouring ranges these hills are much more lived in and used on a daily basis by the local communities.

At New Cumnock, this road joins the A76 which follows the valley of the Nith eastward through the former coal mining towns of Kirkconnel and Sanquhar before swinging southward to Thornhill.

From Moniaive the A702 continues in a south westerly direction towards St. John's Town of Dalry and New Galloway, but the boundary of our hill area follows the B729 westward towards Carsphairn on a largely single track road.

It heads in a generally southern direction and joins the Water of Deugh some 2.5 kilometres north of Kendoon power station which is the second in a series of such power stations running all the way down through the Glenkens from Drumjohn near Loch Doon (which is used as a reservoir for the system and whose level was raised by 27 feet by damming in the 1930s) to Tongland near Kirkcudbright.

The southern end of Loch Ken is shown with the alternative title of River Dee on the Ordnance Survey maps.

It runs through Clatteringshaws Loch where in the 1930s a dam was placed on it to form another reservoir for the Galloway hydro-electric power scheme.

No doubt this would have been an ancient way through these hills since the route passes a fine earthwork by the Druidhill Burn (OS Ref NS810014).

Drumlanrig castle, its grounds, and the many estate properties surrounding it lie on and around a low north/south carefully forested ridge between this glen and the west bank of the River Nith.

Between the glens there are a series of ridges which gently increase in height towards the central area of the hills around Blacklorg and Polskeoch.

This leads to the col between Cairnsmore to the north west and Beninner (710 metres) to the south east along the summit ridge.

There are three useful places to park along this road to go into the Carsphairn hills - Moorbrock house, Nether Holm of Dalquhairn and Lorg.

This is well illustrated by the fact that in 2010 Sanquhar celebrates the centenary of its riding of the marches, which takes place over a 10-day period in August.

One of the great highways of medieval times[8] was the pilgrimage route from Edinburgh to Whithorn in Galloway, much of which is preserved to-day as a hard-beaten track alongside or parallel to the present road.

This route came by Durisdeer to Penpont, Tynron, Moniaive, and on to St John's Town of Dalry)[9] In the 17th century Moniaive became the refuge for the Covenanters, a group of Presbyterian nonconformists who rebelled at having the Episcopalian form of religion forced on them by the last three Stuart kings, Charles I, Charles II and James II of England (James VII of Scotland).

It is a parish of 80 square miles (210 km2) with a population of less than 200 set in a bowl between the Rhinns of Kells and the imposing mass of Cairnsmore of Carsphairn.

Even though it sits on the A713 it is a remote, isolated and largely scattered community quite different in character from the small but active towns and villages along the River Nith or the Moniaive, Penpont area.

At one time the mills of Dalmellington produced yarn for the carpet making industry in Kilmarnock and there were also about 40 weavers working from home there.

How much obscure corners in these hills can mean to people who have what seems like the most distant of connections with them was well illustrated during Scotland's Year of Homecoming in 2009 when 38 descendants of the McCaw family marked the Homecoming Year by gathering together from New Zealand, the USA, Mexico, Greece and England at the remote deserted cottage of Cormilligan near Tynron.

They joined local people in celebrating the lives of their ancestors William and Isabella McCaw who emigrated to Otago in New Zealand with nine of their 10 surviving children in 1880.

This notion was put forward by the antiquarian Joseph Train[19] who had picked up on folk belief concerning a Deil's Dyke.

Eventually this concept of a single Deil's Dyke was discounted by antiquarian scholars in favour of separate unrelated earthworks which had been strung together in Train's imagination.

The Burns Cairn in Glen Afton. The inscription on the cairn says " Flow Gently Sweet Afton . Robert Burns 1759–1796. Erected by New Cumnock Burns Club (500) to mark its golden jubilee 1973."
Looking east across Nithsdale to the Lowther Hills - from Cairnkinna.
Scaur Glen from Cloud Hill near Polgown on the Southern Upland Way - looking south east with Weltrees Hill on the left then Glenwhargen Craig. Cairnkinna is the dark silhouette beyond these on the skyline and Black Rig (catching the light) is in front of it. Peat Hill is the hill on the right of the picture. The post in the foreground is one of the SUW way markers
Trig point and spiral cairn on top of Cairnkinna with a squall coming in from the Lowthers.
Looking south towards the River Nith at the point where it is joined by Afton Water just north of New Cumnock. The water entering from the bottom left of the picture is the River Nith and the water entering from the right is Afton Water . The hill in the background is Corsencon Hill (475 metres). Cumnock Castle stood on this site in the Middle Ages .
Looking east from Auchengibbert Hill with Tynron Doon in the right foreground with the valley of the River Nith (Nithsdale) beyond. The village of Penpont is in the near foreground with Thornhill in the middle distance and Queensberry Hill by the left edge of the picture. Wee Queensberry is the smaller hill to the right (south) of it).
Scaur hills near Glenmanna and Glenwhargen from Woodend Hill.
Looking east across the Glenkens to the group of hills around Cairnsmore of Carsphairn - from Cairnsgarroch in the Rhinns of Kells"
Looking west across the Glenkens to the Rhinns of Kells and the Awful Hand in the Galloway Hills from Cairnsmore of Carsphairn."
From the final station of the cross on top of Dodd Hill looking north east over the Holm Burn to Mid Rig with Ewe Hill on the right of the picture."
The dam of Afton reservoir.
Earthwork (near bottom of the picture on the right) by Druidhill Burn near Penpont with the Lowther hills in the distance from the east shoulder of Cairnkinna.
View of the Renwick Monument Moniaive with the Cairn Valley beyond
Inscription on the Renwick Monument
Memorials to the miners who died in the Knockshinnoch mining disaster in 1950. The stone in the foreground tells of the sponsors of the memorials. The nearer conical memorial indicates where the events took place. The text on the third memorial says "To remember Knockshinnoch 1950. The peat valley ahead broke through into the pit killing 13 miners & trapping 116. Wearing oxygen masks the trapped miners were rescued on the 3rd day."