In fact Rowland had climbed Dun Rig long ago so we devised a plan whereby he would walk a section of the Southern Uplands Way with a minor diversion to the minor summit of Deuchar Law while I linked the two hills together in a circular walk from Tranquair.
It is rather surprising that the excellent path along the long north-east ridge of Dun Rig, which Rowland had added to our old one-inch map, is not shown on even the latest edition. It was exceedingly useful because I was in thick mist long before I even reached the first little top, Birks Hill. This top is in the appendix of Donald's tables because it had an isolated 2000' contour on the old map.
It was only today that I realized that whoever updated these tables in 1981 has totally missed the point of this appendix which was designed to list tops which, although not sufficiently separated from a higher summit to merit a place in the tables proper, would appear as islands if the sea level rose to exactly 2000'. Stake Law, distinguished only by the largest cairn hereabouts, is one of thirteen tops which have been arbitrarily added, its single contour ring being not 610 but 670 metres.
The traverse from Dun Rig summit to Deuchar Law was navigationally simple since there was a boundary fence to follow. There were fragments of track in places, interspersed with segments of ghastly going through long grass, heather and bog. Deuchar Law summit plateau was the worst of all with a completely arbitrary choice of tussock to be chosen as the top. The main purpose of the John Muir Trust 'summit sweep' was to remove the litter so it was with a certain surprised satisfaction that I found the lid of a sardine tin lying in the heather.
All the southern glens of this range have been afforested and a good forest road, furnished with stiles at each end, takes one more than halfway up The Stob. Thereafter dry feet are virtually impossible. A direct line for the summit is impossible too for a line of steep black slabs, not hinted at on the map, guards its eastern flanks. We swung up more sharply left, rounding the pointed end of the forest, which was here only very young saplings, and following the stream, also inexplicably omitted by the OS, to the col between Stob Caol and the reigning summit. The map does show the double top and fortunately we were just below the clouds and so able to see that the north top is the higher, crowned by a little rocky point with a tiny cairn. It probably gives a good view of Ben More and Stob Binnein but today they were veiled in cloud as also were the Corbetts. In fact it was a splendid day for a two-thousander and, although it began to spit with rain as we approached the summit, we did not get significantly wet except for our feet.
my homepage