There are some wonderful place names in the Galloway area. Last weekend we went climbing at some cliffs known as the ‘Clints of Dromore’. A few other examples of the names of local geographical features are:

• Rig of the Jarkness
• Neive of the Spit
• Curlywee
• Rig of the Gloon
• Buckdas of Cairnbaber
• Loch Twachtan

You can spend an enjoyable evening poring over the local Ordnance Survey maps. The Clints of Dromore are a few miles north of Gatehouse of Fleet and consist of a number of granite outcrops sticking out of a heathery hillside. Not a lot of people climb in this area so the access path to the cliffs consists of linking together a few sheep and goat tracks. The rock is however good solid granite and a pleasure to climb on until you get to the next ledge covered with dense heather. Here’s Gabrielle at the start of the climb.

We did the climb in two pitches. This is the view up the second pitch – lots of nice clean granite.

Here’s Gabrielle arriving at the top of the climb.

At the top it was a thrash through the heather to get to a steep gully where we could slither back down to the start of the climb.