Monthly Archives: April 2014

Crab Slab

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Crab Slab is a sea cliff at an area called Meikle Ross, about 5 miles from Craig Cottage. Meikle Ross forms the headland on the west side of Kirkcudbright Bay and features vertically bedded sedimentary rocks from the Silurian period. The access to Crab Slab is via a somewhat precarious scramble down a steep grassy slope which is shown in the photo below:
TThe scramble in to Crab Slab
The first route we climbed was an introductory easy climb up the edge of the slab. The slab is actually a vertical fin of rock that is just a few feet thick so there’s quite an exposed couple of moves across the top of the cliff to get to where it meets the main mass of the hillside. Here’s John sorting out the ropes at the top of the climb, trying not to fall off the sides of the slab.
Top of Crab SlabWe did a couple more climbs out on the face of the slab. The rock is very good for climbing with good friction and some nice features weathered out for hand and foot-holds.

Crab Eyes

 

 

 

 

 

Relaxing at the top of a climb

Gabrielle found a nice spot to relax at the top of one of the climbs. Note the very sturdy block of rock for setting up the belay and abseil anchors.
Scrambling at Meikle Ross
We also had an exploratory scramble round the headland to look at some of the other cliffs in the area.

House o’ Hill Beer & Music Festival

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The House o’ Hill is a small country pub, restaurant and bed & breakfast establishment up in the Galloway Forest Park near Loch Trool. In April they have a weekend beer and music festival to raise money for local charities. We stayed in one of their rooms on the Saturday night so that we could fully enjoy the beer and also go for a walk in Glen Trool on the Sunday morning.
House o' Hill
The weather was sunny but cool and encouraged a few people to sit outside. There was a big tent round the side of the building serving up some tasty food including a hog roast and some spice home-mode curry.
Beer selection
Here’s the beer room with a selection of 8 tasty beers from around the U.K. There were also a couple more to choose from round in the bar area. The music was supplied by a variety of local bands and kept everyone entertained well into the early hours of Sunday morning.
Loch Trool
This is a tree on the banks of Loch Trool. Even though the main tree fell over many years ago, it is still managing to grow a number of new trunks out of the original tree trunk.

Paddling Again

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We finally got the right combination of calm weather and high tide at the right time of day to let us get out the kayaks for a paddle round Barlocco Island. It was a bit misty but we managed to spot large flocks of widgeon and a few other assorted sea birds including shelducks, guillemots and a black-throated diver. As we came back round Barlocco Island we saw a grey seal head looking at us. It submerged so we stopped to wait for it to emerge. It came back up with a big splash right next to Gabrielle’s kayak. I’m not sure who was the more surprised. You can just see the swirl of water on the far side of Gabrielle’s kayak.
Kayaking again