The Tonderghie Burn and Glen, Poultrybuie Hill

Tuesday the 1st of November and it's a nice day.
This post is mainly water and trees so bye bye if you don't like either.
The other week on a Ramblers walk we came by the Tonderghie Burn and I've decided after a couple of years thinking about it to see if I can get through the Tonderghie Glen.I know it's been done cause I've seen a couple of pictures on the internet.There's plenty of the burn and falls below the glen,but very few actually in the glen.
I've parked up at Craigdews,close to where the burn flows into the Palnure.
I walk up the forest track that goes to Black Loch.

This particular waterfall looks man-made,I've no idea why ?

I continue along towards Black Loch.

There's a copious flow today.

I arrive at the ford and waterfall.I took video here,but forgot to take a picture so this is the photo from a fortnight ago.

Now I'm steadily going up the inclined path.It looks a good day.

Black Loch is to the west.

So I get above the waterfall.

This is where it drops.(Top of the picture)

Now I'm where the path and forest toad meet. (Thursday:-I've just noticed the spelling mistake,but I like the sound of a 'forest toad' so I'll leave it in) Looks like a good shelter.

Now I'm heading through the undergrowth and into the glen.

It doesn't look promising.
But wait ! there's a track of sorts.If there's been any walkers up here it isn't recently .These are animal tracks.

Anyhow I make slow progress along the track halfway up the slope.

It's a bit slippery in places.Sheep on the far bank are outpacing me.Well ! they have got four legs.


 Eventually the track comes down to the burn's bank.There's a great tree (well it's a log,but big) across the burn.I lean against it to steady myself for some video and the next thing I'm crashing backwards into rock.Ouch ! that hurt.That tree had been laying in wait for me.

There's a couple of occasions I have to cross on slippery stones.I've been taking video as I go along and It's at the bottom of this post.

The glen itself is probably no more than half a mile,but just before It's confluence with the Corse Burn it becomes very boggy and tussocky.I'll now leave the burn opposite Tonderghie Hill and look for a forest track that's on my map.

Climbing up I spot a Happy Halloween balloon.

This is the view back across and down the glen.

A bit higher and I'm looking along Craigencallie Glen and over to Darnaw.
Maybe a future 'A' walk from here.

The track marked on my map isn't where it's supposed to be,and since I'm climbing anyway the top of Poultrybuie Hill isn't far off.

There's a small pile of stones on the top.It's quite windy and my attempts with the self timer don't come out too good.

Since I can't find the track I 'll make my way though a section of forest.I know there's a forest road through there somewhere since I've walked it before.
I do find it and further on is a copse of trees in a circle of stones.It's not a proper stone circle.Don't know the reasoning.

From the forest road I can look back up Poultrybuie and think this might have been easier than through the woods.

Now it's downhill back to the car.

The video's a bit on the long side,but it covers most of the glen.

Here's the description I've put on YouTube.

The Tonderghie Burn and Glen

From: jimzvidz1  | 2 Nov 2011  | 32 views

Someone once commented on one of my many water video's to "Get a life,and stop filming rivers".
Well I'm sorry to disappoint that person,but here's another one.I just love to film running water.
The Tonderghie burn runs into the Palnure Burn near Craigdew in the Galloway Forest Park.
It starts up in the glen between Munwhul and Darnaw hills before being joined by the Corse Burn.
This video covers the burn from close to it entering the Palnure to just before being joined by the Corse Burn.This is the Tonderghie Glen before it morphs into Craigencallie Glen.
Filmed on the 1st of November 2011.

I doubt if I've covered more than three and a half miles today,but it's been pretty tough and I've a sore butt to prove it.

Wigtownshire Ramblers Murray's Monument Circular October 2011

Saturday the 22nd of October 2011.
Todays walk is a slight variation on one we did in November 2008.
2008 Walk
The weather forecast is a poor one with rain expected in the afternoon.We'll be keeping up a reasonable pace to try and miss it.

There's 14 of us today as we climb up to our first objective, Murray's Monument

No matter how dull the weather there's always a wonderful view from here.

We continue on the through path to join the Talnotry path.

A short walk back downhill gets us to the path which will take us in a south westerly direction over the Black Craigs.

After a steady climb we reach the Talnotry Hill viewpoint.

Directly across the glen is Craignelder. I'll be proposing a walk up there next summer.

We continue along this snaking path keeping a close eye out for mountain bikers.This section is part of the 'Black Route' of the 7 Stanes Mountain Biking Trails

Today we'll give a miss to the Loch of the Lowes. 

(  I walked to the Loch of the Lowes back in March when I got some video of Golden Eye ducks.It's on this post here.Drumlawhinnie and Loch of the Lowes ) or just the video on YouTube at Jimzvidz1 )

Reaching the Old Edinburgh Road we head north east.It's still fairly overcast,but it's staying dry.

Now we reach the adit of the old Talnotry Nickel mine.I apologies for getting it wrong on the walk and saying it was a lead mine. 

Here's some technical information courtesy of Springerlink

Nickel-copper mineralization occurs near the base of a diorite intrusion close to its contact with hornfelsed Ordovician and Silurian shales and greywackes. The principal ore minerals are nickeline, gersdorffite, pyrrhotine, pentlandite and chalcopyrite with minor amounts of molybdenite, tellurobismutite, gold, sphalerite and argentopentlandite. Pyrite, marcasite, violarite and goethite also occur but are interpreted as later alteration products. Much of the pyrrhotine-rich mineralization at the base of the intrusion is in the form of blebs and interstitial aggregates with amphiboles, plagioclase feldspar, biotite, chlorite and quartz. Chalcopyrite-rich and nickeline-gersdorffite-rich mineralization occurs above this and immediately below unmineralized diorite in the form of patches, lenticular masses and stringers along joints and fractures.

Whole rock and ore analyses and electron microprobe data on the silicates, sulphides and sulpharsenides are presented.

The unmineralized diorite has low SiO2 and high MgO contents compared to typical diorites and relatively high Cr, Ni and Ti trace element values. In the mineralized diorite, platinum-group elements occur in very low concentrations in the pyrrhotineand chalcopyrite-rich assemblages but Pt, Pd and Au show significant enrichment in the nickeline-gersdorffite-rich mineralization.

A magmatic origin for the mineralization is proposed rather than formation by hydrothermal solutions or metasomatism.

With a watchful eye on the weather, we decide to have lunch in the relative shelter of the mine entrance.  

After lunch we continue along the old Edinburgh road to reach Black Loch.

As part of the 'Art in the Forest' project,this tall conical art construction was built by Colin Rose (1997) and named  the ‘Eye’. It is covered with a mosaic of small pieces of stone.

A short way along the forest track we access the path to circle the loch.There are ruins of a small stone
structure.Too small to be a sheep pen, it's use was the subject of some speculation.

Our leader,a forestry expert himself points out the girth of a felled Sitca Spruce.
It's roughly 30 years old judging by the rings.

The path takes us down by the beautiful Tonderghie Burn.
The glen further up will be explored by myself sometime in the near future.

Now we retrace our steps back to the Grey Mare's Tail burn where we take the path south.

The next group of pictures are of another part of the 'Art in the Forest' project.

This is the Quorum.

Hidden in an old sheep stell is the ‘Quorum’. This is a group of stone heads carved from local material and set into the walls of this enclosure. Created by Matt Baker and Doug Cocker a few years ago these heads were just the start of a 3-year project called ‘Art in the Galloway Forest Park’.

I managed to fit a few of the faces to those of today's walkers.Quite complimentary I thought.

Further down the path a couple of our more senior walkers recalled bathing in the pool below the upper Grey Mare's Tail waterfall.

We're almost back to the cars and it's still not raining.What a righteous bunch we must be.
It's a shame it's been so dull, a brighter day would have accentuated the wonderful colours.

A final snap on the bridge concludes another excellent walk in the best of company.