The Merrick (from Gaelic ''meurag'', "fingered, knucked") is a mountain in the Range of the Awful Hand, a sub-range of the Galloway Hills range, part of the

Southern Uplands The Southern Uplands () are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas (the others being the Central Lowlands and the Highlands). The term is used both to describe the geographical region and to col ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The summit elevation is , making it the highest mountain in the

and southern

Line of sight

The view between Merrick and

Snowdon Snowdon (), or (), is a mountain in Snowdonia in North Wales. It has an elevation of above sea level, which makes it both the highest mountain in Wales and the highest in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. Snowdon i ...

is the longest line of sight in the British Isle

Although theoretically visible, looking from S-N, Merrick is almost entirely obscured by Lamachan Hill and as such, confirmed sightings are very rare.

Granite boulders

An interesting feature on the mountain is the presence of several large partly buried

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

boulders at about 800 m on the broad west ridge. They are

glacial erratic A glacial erratic is a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...

s, but the exact mechanism is unclear that has brought them to rest close to the highest point of the

and over 200 m higher than any currently occurring granite in the Galloway Hills.

Walking

The shortest route of ascent is from the car park in Glen Trool. The car park is located near ''Bruce's Stone'', a monument commemorating the victory of

Robert the Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (), was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. Robert led Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against Kingdom of Eng ...

over the English forces of Edward II at the Battle of Glen Trool in 1307. The Merrick is a relatively straightforward and easy hike from the car park near Bruce's Stone. The route climbs past the Culsharg bothy then up on to Benyellary. After dropping slightly the final climb to the summit trig-point is made. Be aware that if descending in poor visibility a very common mistake is to walk down the west ridge into remote terrain. The total round-trip distance from Glen Trool to the summit and back is approximately .

Climbing

Because of the nature of the rock, no good

rock climbing Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending climbing routes, routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in c ...

has been recorded on the Merrick. However, in winter after a good freeze there are a number of good ice climbs of up to 200 m on the Black Gairy, which lies west of the summit.

Subsidiary SMC Summits

References

External links

The Merrick routes map, tourist trail and large images
* Link to computer-generated virtual panoramas from Merric
NorthSouth
{{Authority control Marilyns of Scotland Donald mountains Corbetts Mountains and hills of the Southern Uplands Mountains and hills of Dumfries and Galloway Climbing areas of Scotland Highest points of historic Scottish counties