Last week Martyn M1MAJ and I got back from a two week trip to GM/ES via GM/SS, activating 17 summits, of which 16 were uniques for me and 15 for Martyn. Radio conditions were somewhat variable, as was the weather, sometimes trying to do 4 seasons in a day. We managed a total of 468 QSOs between us. Most of mine were on on VHF/UHF with excursions onto 40m or 40m when either necessary or time allowed, with most of Martyn’s on 40m or 60m with excursions onto VHF/UHF for S2Ses and when necessary.
Reports on individual activations will appear here as time permits.
Our first base was 3 nights in a lovely little lodge on a smallholding near Dumfries.
7 May 2026: Thursday: GM/SS-229 Bengairn and GM/SS-261 Bainloch Hill
The forecast was for rain around midday and it was cloudy but with some sunny intervals as we drove to the start point of GM/SS-229 Bengairn. There’s room for a car or possibly two at NX790523 where the track to Foresthill leaves the public road. The woodland opposite the parking included a glorious display of bluebells.
Anticipating rain we togged up with waterproof and set off up the track to Foresthill – by now it was cloudy with some limited visibility but it remained dry. Past Foresthill the track became rougher as it passed through fields, leading to a gate to the open hill where a path continued slowly rising, before dipping slightly, with a fainter intermittent path ascended left up lumpy heathery hill. May is probably a good time to do this hill, as there were scattered bluebells even on the open hill, but also signs of bracken just breaking through. It was a moderately tough climb after an easy walk in – Caroline’s dodgy knee had a few grumbles on the way up but was generally well-behaved.
The summit has a low shelter around the trig point and a separate cairn. We made our base by the cairn which provide some wind shelter, with Martyn dropping down slightly to set up HF. On the way up we had heard Mark M5TEA calling from Binsey G/LD-041, chasing him on 2m. At the summit we again worked him for the S2S, this time on 70cms. Caroline only got 9 contacts, just 3 on 70cms and 6 on 2m finishing with a difficult S2S with Viki GM6BWA on GM/SS-135. Martyn did better on HF, jus 2 on 60m, but 14 on 40m. Caroline tried 20m, but 0 contacts! We didn’t get any of the forecast rain and visibility improved to give hazy views along the coast.
With lunch eaten it was time to descend – around 7.4km round trip, taking about 1:25 up and 1 hour down. We then moved to the parking for GM/SS-261 Bainloch Hill the other side of the Urr Estuary. We had identified a small parking area near a forest gate at NX880563. There was already a car parked there, but room for us to get well off the road too.
From there we walked up the road to NX882573 where a forest track leaves; the track entrance looks to have been widened so parking might be possible there to save the road section. The forest track ascends steadily curving round the hill, eventually coming to a section with felling both sides of the track. We continued on the track to where it started to drop again, looking for a possible former forest ride to ascend. Failing to find one we had to hack through the stumps and rough ground, before emerging onto the moor with heather, bilberry, grass and scattered conifers. The top has a cairn which we again made our base, with Martyn again dropping down for HF.
We started the activation with an S2S with Tony M9OUD on Black Combe G/LD-030 who we had also worked on the ascent – a good sea path from the summit. Caroline managed to qualify this one on 4 bands – 4 on 70cms, 5 on 2m and 4 on 40m, after Martyn had qualified with 5 on 60m. By now it had turned into a lovely evening, with blue skies, scattered cloud and better visibility down the coast of the Solway Firth. The walk was only just over 6km – about 1:20 up and less than an hour down.
8 May 2026: Friday - White Hill GM/SS-289 and See Morris Hill GM/SS-274
The weather forecast was not good, with rain due in the morning and early afternoon. We wanted to do White Hill GM/SS-289 which replaced GM/SS-253 Hightown Hill which we had previously activated. The day started dry but there was light rain by the time we left the holiday lodge, which soon turned heavy as we drove. When we did Hightown Hill we had managed to find parking by Hightown Farm, but the rain was now torrential, and there wasn’t anyone obviously about to ask if we could park, so we carried on south down the road to NY028825 where we found a pull in opposite a gate on the east side of the road just south of a tree belt.
As we sat in the car wondering what to do, we realised that the rain had stopped, so decided to risk it, applying waterproofs and rucksack covers. We walked the 1.1km back up the road to the farm to take the track that heads along the southern flank of Hightown Hill. At the track entrance was a field with lots of pet lambs on various breeds and sizes who came rushing over to the fence, clearly expecting humans to feed them, but they were out of luck.
The track was muddy and running in water, and there were lots of curious young cattle. We eased our way past them and continued along the track followed by the cattle. They continued following us as we went through the open gate into the field containing White Hill. Part way up Caroline decided that the cattle needed deterring, so turned round stared at them, told them to go away, and waved hands at them, and was relieved when they seemed to get the message that not all humans come bearing food. We then continued past some faint earthworks to the undistinguished top, where the highest point appears to be one of a number of small rocky outcrops projecting from the otherwise grassy summit.
As we got to the summit, we heard Tony M9OUD on G/LD-021 Robinson, so worked him for the S2S. There was no rain so we set up, Martyn on the grass, Caroline by a rocky outcrop. Caroline qualified on both 2m (8) and 70cms (4), while Martyn got 7 on 60m and 4 on 40m. At one stage cattle came to investigate Martyn, but he managed to persuade them away with no damage to his antenna.
We could see some distant precipitation so with lunch eaten we packed up, but not quickly enough as we had to finish packing with hail beating down. The hail continued on the way down, but had reduced to light rain by the time we were at the bottom, and had stopped by the time we got back to the car. We had now done the three uniques closest to where we were staying, but wanted to revisit See Morris Hill GM/SS-274, which we had first done almost 20 years ago in almost zero visibility. We had memories of finding that the trig point had very recently been painted white – there being a circular white mark on the grass where the paint can had been – so we wanted to see what it looked like now.
We had previously walked directly from the cottage we had been staying at, but this time we drove up the lane to Riddingshill, to a little parking area around NX911776. The rain had stopped and although there was still cloud and distant rain it remained dry as we walked less than a mile up the transmitter track and beyond it to the trig point. There we discovered that 20 years of Dumfries weather had erased most of the white paint – a few flecks remained to show it had once been painted.
2006 trig point
2026 trig point
There was nobody else around and the trig point had a suitable hole in the top, so Caroline used that to support the MFD. Meanwhile Martyn set up HF a little lower on the grassy area where he found a nice log to use as a seat. Caroline’s initial attempts failed to qualify the hill, getting stuck on 3 VHF and 2 UHF contacts, so with Martyn having qualified with 6 on 60m, Caroline moved to HF with a run of 4 on 40m and 3 on 20m. Having passed HF back to Martyn to try 15m, Caroline then got more VHF and UHF contacts, ending up with 5 on each. HF wasn’t good and Martyn got 0 on 15m.
By now it had turned into a lovely afternoon with good views all round. It was a pleasant walk back to the car, with bluebells again making a good show in the woods. Back at the holiday lodge there was the less pleasant discovery that Martyn had managed to pick up three tiny ticks, in places that had been under layers of clothing. They were sufficiently small that they were difficult to remove with any of our three tick removers – two of our tick removers were way too big for them, and the ticks just tend to slip through the best remover, but we eventually got all three out. Any recommendations for a tick remover that does small ticks?
To be continued with the move to Aberdeenshire.
