I’ve just plotted the two routes on OSmaps website. I did so because it looked to me that if you “opened out” all the “there and back” sections of the Eweslees route, it wouldn’t be much different to Jimmy’s circular route.
However, I was wrong. The Eweslees route in total is 75 minutes and 5km shorter than the circular route. Eweslees it is - and I will deal with any farmer. I’m sure it will be fine - some report as friendly so I’ll be friendly too.
You are sure about that dad, if you look at this report on Walk Highlands (Walk Report - No sheep, no cattle, no ticks - no farmer • Walkhighlands), these describes the farmer as Eweslees Farm was very aggressive to hikers and the outcome was that these hikers and to turn back and do a different route on a different day to avoid the farmer. These hikers did not even walk through the farm yard at Eweslees, but yet had to get off that farmers land ASAP
The Eweslees route involves walking through Eweslees at least once, more likely twice and therefore we are very likely to get shouted at very aggressively by the farmer. I have read reports as well of this farm yard having guard dogs and “guard turkeys” as well, but sure if this could cause any further problems. I know that in Scotland, you have the right to room, but not 100% on the law when it comes to walking through farm yards in Scotland.
Jimmy M0HGY
I’ll be up near Kyle of Lochalsh that weekend doing SOTA by M/C.
I’m not sure which hills I’ll be doing but hopefully s2s will be on the cards Sunday 22nd and/or Monday 23rd.
I’ll definitely have 2m (FM & SSB) capability and hopefully HF as well. (FT818).
Hopefully talk to you then.
Andy
MM7MOX
This circular route does look a good option dad, does have seem step climbing at the beginning though which may annoy you a bit 
Also, as the start and end of the is circular walk are in view of Eweslees Farm, not sure if this could trigger the farmer if he sees us walking to approach is and angrily tell us to get off his fields.
Jimmy M0HGY
You should research the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and also Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016. Remember you will no longer be in Englandshire and many of the petty restrictions down there do not apply up here, different country, different laws. He cannot stop responsible access to the land and as you wont have a dog or dogs with you and lambing is well over, there is little he can do. We all need to act responsibly when accessing the land and also stand up to bullies and people trying to enforce laws that don’t exist.
Weather today isn’t good to do any walking up hills in Scotland (GM). Therefore, me and my dad Tom @M1EYP decided to pay a visit to SOTA president John @G3WGV who lives near Penrith in Cumbria.
Jimmy M0HGY
I got rained off and blown away today, so no sota for me either.
Inspector Rebus by the fire whilst the kit dries off.
Maybe tomorrow on the way south.
Andy
MM7MOX
Today, the weather has been a bit better and my dad Tom @M1EYP activated Ruber’s Law GM/SS-210 and Belling Hill GM/SS-244, both of which are fairly nearby easiest SOTA summits that we have both activated on one of our previous GM/SS SOTA Trips.
Unfortunately, since arriving yesterday at our accommodation which is the Eskdale Hotel in Langholm, I have been feeling under the weather and due to this I had a rest day today at this accommodation while my dad activated the 2 SOTA summits mentioned before. We were meant to be travelling home this Friday (27th June), but due to me feeling under the weather, we will be travelling home tomorrow (24th June) after we have had our breakfast. I have deleted all our upcoming alerts from SOTAwatch already.
Although, this overall hasn’t been a great Scotland (GM) SOTA trip for me, it was nice to meet up with SOTA President John @G3WGV yesterday and I have absolutely enjoyed the evening meals and breakfast at The Eskdale Hotel in Langholm, the food there is absolutely exceptional. I totally recommended The Eskdale Hotel in Langholm for accommodation when activating SOTA summits in this area and one day, me and my dad will return to The Eskdale Hotel in Langholm to activate the GM/SS SOTA summits near to there that we planned to activate this week and to try some more of the exceptional food at this accommodation also.
Jimmy M(M)0HGY
Hi Jimmy,
Sorry to miss you and hope you fell better. I tried your dad today but the skip on 40m was huge - I could hear the south coast but not GM! Shame, i was looking forward to giving GM/NS - GM/SS a bash on 2m !
The weather is not the best in GM/NS either. Huge menacing weather systems rolling over me on the coast and when they hit the mountains…
Tim
As explained above, me and my dad Tom @M1EYP had to cut our recent GM/SS trip short as I was feeling unwell. However, have a postponed GM/SS trip planned to which we are staying at the Eskdale Hotel in Langholm once again as we enjoyed the food there very much (the only good thing of the most recent short lived GM/SS trip). We will be travelling there on Sunday 31st August and travelling back home again on Friday 5th September.
This time I am going to make sure that I reduce any possible chances of catching any viral infection which could make me unwell for this postponed trip by working from home the week before this trip rather than working in the office and I won’t be going out socialising anywhere either between the end of my working week and the upcoming GM/SS trip. The week before the last GM/SS trip which had to be cut short due to be feeling unwell, I was working each day in the office on the week leading up to that that and at the end of that working week, I attended a works summer event where there was loads of beer and socialising involved and I think it was me working in the office and attending this works summer event that resulted in me catching a viral infection that made me feel unwell.
Anyway, enough of the above and onto the SOTA plans for our upcoming GM/SS SOTA trip. I have posted the alerts on SOTAwatch already and I have mentioned the SOTA plans below also which are subject change as weather maybe bad. All times on below plans are in UTC. I plan to activate the SOTA summits on 2m FM and my dad plans to activate the SOTA summits on 20m CW, 20m SSB, 40m CW and 40m SSB, we hope to make plenty of contacts across the bands.
Sunday 31st August - Larriston Fell GM/SS-161 at 1300.
Monday 1st September - Roan Fell GM/SS-132 at 1100.
Tuesday 2nd September - Pikethaw Hill GM/SS-136 at 1200 and Wisp Hill GM/SS-118 at 1500.
Wednesday 3rd September - Ellson Fell GM/SS-146 at 1030.
Thursday 4th September - Greatmoor Hill GM/SS-114 at 1200 and Cauldcleuch Head GM/SS-106 at 1500.
Friday 5th September - Keeping this day clear of the time being just in case any do the above don’t go to plan (bad weather etc).
Jimmy M0HGY
Jimmy, I completely missed this that you’d been unwell but at least you are coming back up.
Tom @M1EYP what where the trees like on Belling Hill? Can you still get to the wall and summit easily? Or is it returning to its pre-harvest days?
It wasn’t a problem. Admittedly I didn’t follow Jimmy’s direct route through the firebreaks from the parking spot. I followed the long and winding access track up to fairly close to the summit, then picked my way, easily, from there.
From Sunday 31st August till Friday 5th September, me and my dad Tom @M1EYP will be doing our postponed Langholm trip that we had to cut short back in June due to me feeling very poorly during that trip. So as to ensure that I will not get poorly on this upcoming Langholm trip, my plan was to work from home all this week and not socialise at all this upcoming weekend. However, unfortunately for me, I ended up this time last week feeling very poorly with the same viral infection that I was poorly with during our short lived Langholm trip. As a result of this, I ended working from home earlier than I planned to as I was meant to start working from home from yesterday, but I have now been working from home since Tuesday last week. The good news now though is that over the Bank Holiday weekend, I recovered from my viral infection and now I am ready for this upcoming Langholm trip.
The plans are to activate the GM/SS summits near to Langholm which are currently alerted on SOTAwatch and mentioned above in this thread also. However, unfortunately the weather is currently very unsettled thanks to this ex-hurricane Erin moving the high pressure away from the UK and brining in loads of low pressure and the weather is currently looking to stay very unsettled until around mid September. This upcoming Sunday (31st August) in particular is looking like a very wet and windy day, certainly not ideal for activating any SOTA summit. These GM/SS SOTA summits near to Langholm we are planning to activate are all very big walks and we certainly won’t be walking up any of them in wet weather, instead we will look to drive further a field to try and activate some easier GM/SS SOTA uniques during some dry weather windows. We will even consider none SOTA days on any days when the weather is absolutely awful. We will be staying at the Eskdale Hotel in Langholm once again as we really enjoy the food there and looking to eat some more food items on there menu which we weren’t able to do during our last stay there as to had to cut this trip short. There is a pub next door to the Eskdale Hotel called The Douglas which has hand-pulled Scottish real ale and a pool table as well which is ideal for us if in the unfortunate event that we end having a none SOTA day due to bad weather as me and my dad really do enjoy our real ale and playing each other on pool also. For any GM/SS SOTA summits that we do manage to activate, I’ll be on 2m FM and my dad will be doing CW and SSB on both 20m and 40m, we hope to work you on the bands.
Jimmy M0HGY
No gig still as of yet Saturday night, so as it stands I’ll pick you up 6am Sunday morning Jim.
Last night at the Eskdale Hotel, Langholm tonight and last day of the SOTA trip tomorrow. It very much has not gone to plan so far! We’ve needed to head into different areas than planned in order to avoid unpleasant weather. We’ve even had to scrap a day completely (in terms of SOTA activating!)
Here’s a summary of what we’ve done so far:
Sunday 31st August - Bennan GM/SS-224
Nice short easy walk.
Monday 1st September - Kirkland Hill GM/SS-164
Fairly straightforward, 50 minutes each way.
Monday 1st September - Green Hill GM/SS-123
Another fairly short walk.
Tuesday 2nd September - Woodhead Hill GM/SS-269
Lovely forestry commission area south of Dumfries. Ended up hanging around on this one partly due to it being delightful, and our determination to locate the official true summit location - a tough task in dense conifers but Jimmy did in the end!
That night I walked up to the Malcolm Memorial (not SOTA) high above Langholm for the 2m FMAC and UKAC. Unfortunately I managed to pack a section of tubing from an MFD rather than the back section of the SB5! My attempt to cobble a 3 el beam from what I had didn’t work so that was the end of that. I did squeeze in a single 2m FM contact using my handheld, so a (rather pathetic) FMAC has been submitted!
Wednesday 3rd September - day off!
The wx forecast was appalling so we abandoned SOTA plans. Instead we took a drive up to Wanlockhead - Scotland’s highest village, and the Wanlockhead Inn - Scotland’s highest pub. Well worth a visit; we enjoyed it.
That night I went back up to the Malcolm Memorial, this time with the correct components of the beam! Had a decent night in the 2m FT8AC making 23 QSOs, many of them > 400km.
Thursday 4th September - Roan Fell GM/SS-132
First time we actually went up a summit we’d actually intended doing! What a splendid walk too - highly recommended.
I’ve not gone into detail about radio stuff on the actual activations. Suffice to say it’s been 40m/20m SSB/CW for me ( @GW5SAW Excalibur antenna) and 2m FM for Jimmy (SOTAbeams MFD), with very occasional swaps for S2S opportunities etc.
Langholm pub crawl underway right now, ahead of a planned traverse of Pikethaw Hill GM/SS-136 and Wisp Hill GM/SS-118, and journey home tomorrow.
And finally…
Friday 5th September - Pikethaw Hill GM/SS-136 & Wisp Hill GM/SS-118
A pretty strenuous route for our final day. Rather a lot of ascent, and unforgiving ground!
Approached the saddle directly through the farm and scrapyard. After Wisp Hill, we descended directly down the south ridge via Whin Fell.
This was hard work and I suspect returning to the saddle and back through the farm (etc) would have been easier!
Supper - as usual for last day of a GM trip - from Memet’s in Gretna.
Glad you managed to get in lots of hills in the end.
I think the photos reveal Jimmy’s favourite part of the trip. 
I agree! At the start of the week it looked like we would have 2 or 3 complete washout days, 2 or 3 unsettled “dodge the showers” days and one good day!
So 7 activations in the 6 days, all new uniques, was a very pleasing return. There must be quite a few we’d planned not done because I think it was the penultimate day of our holiday that we first activated any of the summits we’d alerted for!
We keep doing these trips, they almost always go well, been doing them for nearly 20 years - yet still it seems we’re barely making a dent into GM SOTA!
There’s only one person making a dent into GM SOTA, and that’s Colwyn @MM0YCJ !
