Lowther Hills
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The Lowther Hills, also sometimes known as the Lowthers, are an extensive area of hill country in the
Southern Uplands The Southern Uplands ( gd, Na Monaidhean a Deas) are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas (the other two being the Central Lowlands and the Grampian Mountains and the Highlands, as illustrated ...
of Scotland, though some sub-ranges of hills in this area also go under their own local names - see "Hillwalking" below. They form a roughly rhomboidal or lozenge shape on the map with the acute angles being to north and south. It has river valleys along its boundaries to north east (
Clydesdale Clydesdale is an archaic name for Lanarkshire, a traditional county in Scotland. The name may also refer to: Sports * Clydesdale F.C., a former football club in Glasgow * Clydesdale RFC, Glasgow, a former rugby union club * Clydesdale RFC, South ...
) and south west ( Nithsdale) which carry the two largest arterial routes northwards into the west side of the Central Belt of Scotland. A string of small towns have long since developed along these routes. Most of the Lowther Hills lie in the Administrative County of
Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...
, though part in the administrative county of
South Lanarkshire gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms_slanarkshire.jpg , image_blank_emblem = Slanarks.jpg , blank_emblem_type = Council logo , image_map ...
moves into them around the village of Leadhills and the Daer Reservoir.


Etymology

There is some obscurity surrounding the name ''Lowther''. Derivation from the
early Irish The history of the Irish language begins with the period from the arrival of speakers of Celtic languages in Ireland to Ireland's earliest known form of Irish, Primitive Irish, which is found in Ogham inscriptions dating from the 3rd or 4th cen ...
''lothur'' meaning "a canal, a trench", in this sense "a pass between hills", has been suggested.


North-east and south-west boundaries

It is some 30 kilometres across the rhomboid as the crow flies from the town of Sanquhar just to the west of the Lowthers to the towns of
Beattock Beattock is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, approximately southwest of Moffat and north of Dumfries. Beattock was historically served by the A74 road and the West Coast Main Line, however the road has since been upgraded to the ...
and Moffat on the east and some 28 kilometres from the town of Thornhill near the southern apex to Abington near the northern one. Sanquhar and Thornhill lie on the River Nith, Moffat on the
River Annan The River Annan (''Abhainn Anann'' in Gaelic) is a river in south-west Scotland. It rises on Annanhead Hill and flows through the Devil's Beef Tub, Moffat and Lockerbie, reaching the sea at Annan, Dumfries and Galloway after about 40 miles. ...
and Abington on the
River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...
. Annandale and Clydesdale taken together, form a corridor between the Lowther Hills and the
Moffat Hills The Moffat Hills are a range of hills in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. They form a roughly triangular shape with a west facing side, a north facing side, and a south-east facing side. It is 17 kilometres from east to west across this triangle ...
(which lie to the east.). This corridor between the hills carries the main route running northwards into Scotland on its west side. It carries both the west coast railway line and the M74 motorway and has been the main route north over centuries. Nithsdale to the west of the Lowthers carries both the
A76 road The A76 is a major trunk road in south west Scotland. Starting at Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire, the A76 goes through or immediately by-passes Hurlford, Mauchline, Auchinleck, Cumnock, Pathhead and New Cumnock before entering Dumfries and Gall ...
and the rail line from
Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...
to
Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...
. The next range of hills to the west beyond the River Nith is the Carsphairn and Scaur Hills.


North-west and south-east boundaries

The north west boundary of the hills runs up the Crawick Water in a north easterly direction from where the Crawick Water runs into the River Nith. This boundary follows the B740 road through
Crawfordjohn Crawfordjohn ( gd, Creamhain Eòin) is a small village and civil parish of 117 residents located in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.The Imperial gazetteer of Scotland. 1854. VOL.I (AAN-GORDON) by Rev. John Marius Wilson. p.315 https://archive.org/ ...
and connects to the old trunk road north which was used before the M74 was built on its present route. North of the B740 the hills gradually drop out into the Central Lowlands of Scotland though
Tinto Tinto is an isolated hill in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It comprises little more than one top, which stands on the west bank of the River Clyde, some west of Biggar. The peak is also called "Tinto Tap", with the name Tinto possibly de ...
is an outlier 11 kilometres north of Abington. The south east boundary of the hills is formed by the Forest of Ae which is one of the largest forests in Britain at 10,000 hectares. A continuous band of trees runs, again in a north easterly direction, from Auldgirth on the River Nith (9 kilometres south of Thornhill), for some 26 kilometres till it meets the M74 motorway 10 kilometres north of Beattock. Continuing south of Ae leads into the plain that surrounds the town of Dumfries.


Hill Passes

There are three road passes running in a north easterly direction diagonally through the Lowthers linking the A76 trunk road to the M74 motorway, and several 'ancient passes' now followed by paths or tracks.


Dalveen Pass

Dalveen Pass is the most southerly and the longest pass within the Lowther Hills. It runs from Carronbridge on the A76 just north of Thornhill to Elvanfoot near the M74 and carries the A702 trunk road. The road passes near the village of Durisdeer en route and reaches a height of 350 metres at the top of the pass. It is the only pass enlarged by ice into a U-shaped glacial trough, hence the road has to climb up the steep side to gain the head.


Mennock Pass

The Mennock Pass carries the B797 which runs from the small village of Mennock on the A76 to Abington near the M74, passing through the villages of
Wanlockhead Wanlockhead is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, nestling in the Lowther Hills and south of Leadhills at the head of the Mennock Pass, which forms part of the Southern Uplands. It is Scotland's highest village, at an elevation of ar ...
and Leadhills. The B797 reaches to a height of 467 metres as it leaves Wanlockhead - which is the highest village in Scotland.


Crawick Pass

Crawick Pass is the most northerly of the three passes and carries the B740 from Crawick to Crawfordjohn and on to the M74. The Crawick is the shortest of the three passes without the steep ascents and overarching hills that characterise the other two. It is also the lowest of the three reaching a maximum height of 288 metres.


Ancient Passes

There was another pass from Durisdeer through to Wanlockhead called the
Enterkin Pass Enterkinfoot is a small village or hamlet which lies north of Thornhill on the A76 on the route to Sanquhar, in Dumfriesshire, Durisdeer Parish, in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. Its original nucleus was the old mill with associat ...
which was an old pack horse route through the hills from Dumfries to Glasgow. It has been argued by H.R.G. Inglis (1924) that this route was used mainly for extracting lead to the Solway coast and was never viable as a main route north because of its height. There is no road through there now though there is a track for walkers into the centre of the hills. The Enterkin Pass was the location of a 1684
Covenanter Covenanters ( gd, Cùmhnantaich) were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name is derived from ''Covenan ...
ambush of a party of Dragoons during the Killing Time The Romans built a road through from their fortlet near Durisdeer on a route which takes a more direct route to the head of the pass than is offered by the Dalveen Pass. Inglis calls this route Well Path and he considers this to have been on the main pilgrimage route from Edinburgh to Whithorn and one of the main ancient routes northwards through the Southern Uplands.


Geology and Scenery of the Passes

The Lowther Hills are composed of resistant Ordovician shales, heavily compressed and contorted in the Caledonian mountain-building orogeny. The headwaters of the River Nith incise them deeply on the south, as the Nith falls much more steeply (to the nearby Solway Firth) than does the Clyde on the north. The flanks of the heavily glaciated Dalveen Pass and of the deep, steep-sided Enterkin Pass are both lined with rock slope failures (large landslips and landslides), with a deep V-shaped notch linking these passes being a probable overflow channel cut by glacial meltwaters. The original source of the Clyde is inferred to have been here, captured to the Nith by the Dalveen trough-head.


Durisdeer and its Church

The village of Durisdeer sits at some distance from the A702, nestling tightly into the foot of Durisdeer Hill at the bottom of the pass through the hills that the Romans used. The Duke of Buccleuch, the largest private landowner in Britain, owns much of the land for many miles around this area and has a castle at
Drumlanrig Drumlanrig (Scottish Gaelic: ''Druim Lannraig'') is a settlement in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, which is best known for nearby Drumlanrig Castle. The earliest record for Drumlanrig is from 1384, spelled ''Drumlangryg''. There are a number o ...
on the west bank of the River Nith some 5 kilometres north of Thornhill. In the church at Durisdeer there is a mausoleum to the first Duke of Buccleuch complete with marble statues of him and his wife Mary dating from 1713 though there has been a church on this site since medieval times.


Source of the Clyde

Approaching Elvanfoot on the A702, Glenochar farmhouse is reached. Just to the north, there is Glenochar Bastle and Fermtoun a 17th-century settlement and fortified house. The archaeological dig which revealed this was the winner of the 1997 Pitt Rivers Award for amateur archaeologists. Also, just to the south is the source of the
River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...
which flows north through Lanarkshire and passes through the City of Glasgow. Where the Daer and Potrail Waters confluence, the River Clyde begins. The Daer Water has its head waters near Queensberry and it flows through
Daer Reservoir Daer Reservoir and dam, alt=Daer Reservoir and dam with a blue footbridge extending out into the water and mown grass banks surrounding and a stone wall leading up to the dam Daer Reservoir is a man-made waterbody created by the damming of the D ...
before it meets the Potrail. The head waters of the Potrail are on the north east side of Durisdeer Hill.


God's Treasure House in Scotland

The fact that there are two villages nearly 500 metres up in a desolate hillside in the Southern Uplands of Scotland requires some explanation: because of the rich variety of minerals to be found here, this area became known as "God's Treasure House in Scotland". Notably, it has produced some of the world's purest gold (22.8 carats) which was used in the manufacture of the Scottish Crown Jewels - dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. The name "Leadhills" testifies to the fact that this area was chiefly known for its lead mining; and there is a lead mining museum in nearby Wanlockhead. Leadhills has the oldest subscription library in the UK (founded by miners in 1741), and was the birthplace of the 18th century poet
Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to: *Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet *Allan Ramsay (artist) or Allan Ramsay the Younger (1713–1784), Scottish portrait painter *Allan Ramsay (diplomat) (1937–2022), British diplom ...
, whose son, also
Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to: *Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet *Allan Ramsay (artist) or Allan Ramsay the Younger (1713–1784), Scottish portrait painter *Allan Ramsay (diplomat) (1937–2022), British diplom ...
, was the leading portrait painter in Britain in the mid 18th century. The
Leadhills & Wanlockhead Railway The Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway is a narrow gauge railway in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is laid on the trackbed of the former Leadhills and Wanlockhead Branch of the Caledonian Railway which led off the main line between and Glasgo ...
is a preserved former industrial narrow-gauge railway line.


Hillwalking

The Lowther Hills can be split into a northern and southern section. The northern section would generally be taken to mean the string of tops lying between the Dalveen Pass and the Mennock Pass and running south eastward from near Elvanfoot over Lousie Wood Law, White Law, Dun Law, Dungrain Law, Peden Head,
Green Lowther Green Lowther is a hill in the Lowther Hills range, part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is the highest point of the Lowther Hills and lies in Lanarkshire, east of the town of Sanquhar. A microwave array once stood at the summit, however ...
, Lowther Hill, East Mount Lowther, Thirstane Hill and Steygail which dominates the steepest part of the Dalveen Pass on its northern side. Green Lowther is the highest point of the Lowther Hills area and, like Lowther Hill, has a Civil Aviation Authority aircraft tracking station on the summit. The huge white 'golf ball' on the top of Lowther Hill can be seen from many miles away in all directions. The Southern Upland Way passes over the top of Lowther Hill - the highest point of the entire route. The southern portion would generally be taken to mean the lower but more expansive hills which lie between the Dalveen Pass and the Forest of Ae, the highest point of which is Queensberry. Mitchellslacks, on the northern edge of the Forest Ae, and which provides access to Queensberry, along with nearby Locherben, were the homes of the Harknesses involved in the Covenanter ambush. They also offer views into the northern Lowthers, Nithsdale and Annandale.


Snowsports

The Lowther Hills are one of the birthplaces of Scottish winter sports. Curling in the Lowthers can be traced back to 1777, when the Wanlockhead Curling Society –one of Scotland's first Curling societies- was created. Scotland's first boys' Curling club was established in Wanlockhead in 1883. The sport remained popular in the area until the 1930s. Since the 1920s skiing in the Lowther Hills has been organised intermittently by a succession of local residents as well as several non-for-profit sports clubs. Lowther Hill is home to the only ski area in the south of Scotland, and Scotland's only community-owned ski centre. Operated by Lowther Hills Ski Club, the ski centre runs three ski lifts above the villages of Leadhills and Wanlockhead for beginners and intermediate skiers.Lowther Hills Ski Club
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References


Further reading

* Andrew K.M. and Thrippleton A.A. (1972) The Southern Uplands. The Scottish Mountaineering Trust sbn 901516 57 0 * Turnbull, Ronald (1999) Walking the Lowther Hills. Cicerone Press Cumbria * Marsh, Terry (1988) On Foot in Southern Scotland. Devon: A David and Charles Book * Williams, David (1989) A Guide to the Southern Upland Way. London: A Constable Guide * Prentice, Tom (1995) 25 Walks - Dumfries and Galloway Edinburgh HMSO


External links




Lowther Hills Ski Centre
{{coord, 55.40, -3.74, dim:30000_region:GB, display=title Mountains and hills of the Southern Uplands Mountains and hills of the Scottish Borders History of Dumfriesshire History of South Lanarkshire Covenanters Gold mines in Scotland Mountains and hills of South Lanarkshire Mountains and hills of Dumfries and Galloway Mountain ranges of Scotland Scotland Ski Ski Skiing in Scotland