Introduction The Merrick is the highest of the Galloway Hills at 843m, and the highest hill in southern Scotland. This page was compiled by John Biggar, a professional Mountaineering Instructor and member of the AMI, who lives locally and was involved in a number of the first ascents on the icefalls on the Merrick. Contact me (details above) if you want to know more about climbing in Galloway. This page was compiled with care, but it is not guaranteed error free.
An interesting curiosity is that the longest theoretical line of sight possible in the British Isles is from the top of the Merrick to Snowdon in Wales, a distance of 232km. See this site Merrick Summit Panorama for details, an explanation of why you probably can't see Merrick from Wales and other great summit panoramas.
Access The majority of the winter climbs on the Merrick are on a crag called the Black Gairy which lies between 550-750m altitude on the north side of the west ridge of the Merrick. Access is pretty long, but very worthwhile. There are two main options. The first is to leave your car at Kirriereoch farm and walk in to the bottom of the crag from the west over extremely rough ground and land devastated by industrial forestry. Choose your route carefully, none of them are particularly recommended!. The other option is to walk in from near the top of the Bennan Hill, where a forestry road can be used for bike access. This approach, mostly on short grass, takes you over Benyellary to the Merrick-Benyellary col. Traverse westwards from just above this col to reach the top of the descent route as detailed below. For the Howe of the Cauldron climb this summit route is definitely recommended. Just descend to the climb from right by the trig-point at the summit.
Dangers This is a remote and serious mountain cliff. Winter climbing is also inherently dangerous. The rock protection on the routes on the Black Gairy is generally poor, sometimes non-existent, and the rock itself is all pretty loose. You'll probably need some ice-screws, some warthogs or other turf protection, and a cool head.
Descents From the top of the routes descend steep grass and heather slopes about 500m to the west of the main icefalls.
Conditions. This picture of the Black Gairy was taken in March 2006 after no snowfall but one week of hard (-5C) frosts. As you can see conditions on many routes were excellent, however Interstellar Overdraft was not formed at all (it appears to require a freeze-thaw of snow to form). Kenny's and Chippy's and the Black Gutter also require snow to form properly.
Linda Biggar on the crux grade III/IV pitch of the Black Gutter, left hand finish, March 24th 2008.
Interstellar Overdraft in good condition, March 2008.
About 100m the left of the Black Gutter (not in topo above) is one further route, climbed 19th February 2008 by J. Kinnaird and J. Biggar. Monsieur Marmalade, III, 4, 150m starts at a narrow slot in the lower tier below a leftwards dog leg ice stream on the upper face. Climb the slot, cross the grass and climb the dog leg upper ice stream, in about 4 or 5 pitches altogether.
James Kinnaird on the technical crux of Monsieur Marmalade, III, 4. Below on one of the easier sections, conditions were a little bit thin.!
There is one other recorded route on the Merrick, in the Howe of the Cauldron on the NE side of the mountain an icefall forms high up. It is easiest to approach from above, just drop down east of the summit trig-point. It is almost certainly the most reliable ice climbing in Galloway. It is a 100m grade II/III, 2 **, ice-screw protection is necessary. Pictured below as it was in March 2006.
Of course there is another way to reach the Howe of the Cauldron icefall...
There is some good steep, skiing down into the top of the Howe of the Cauldron. Photo courtesy of Stephen Reid at Needlesports. Red jacket courtesy of Photoshop!
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