Walking around Kirkcudbright 343 m
Screel Hill.  Woodland paths & forestry tracks.	3+ miles round trip.  Part circular

Through woods onto open moor and rocky hillside.

Forestry tracks & woodland - easy; moor & hill - moderate.

This attractive hill, although low by Scottish standards, is a popular walk; being open and rugged at the top, and providing  some excellent viewpoints particularly over the Solway coast. Refer to Ordnance Survey map Landranger 84.  From Kirkcudbright follow the A711 to Auchencairn.  Continue for a further 2 miles taking a minor road on the left (leading to Gelston).  Along this road, in a ¼ mile on the left, is a Forestry Enterprise Car Park for Screel Hill (NX800546). Leave transport here, and walk up the forestry track through fir trees for a ¼ mile to the corner of an open field.  From this point, there is a way-marked path up through the woods on the left.  Follow this path to a clearing and a seat (½ mile),  from where there are views across Auchencairn Bay and the Solway.

Just by the seat, cross over a forestry track and continue along the meandering path up through the coniferous wood for ½ mile.  Emerge from the woods onto open moorland and follow the path through heather, climbing steadily up the hill, zig-zagging through rocks to the top of the ridge (1½ mile)...          At the west end of the ridge, a stone cairn at a height of 343 m. marks the summit of Screel (NX780553). The cairn is reached by walking along the broad undulating ridge for another ¼ mile or so. There are views all around, particularly to the higher cairn of Ben Gairn about a mile away (391 m.- on the left), inland to the Galloway Hills and across the Solway to the Cumbrian coast.

Descent can be made either by re-tracing the route, or by following the fairly steep path from the cairn in a south-westerly direction, down to a stone dyke, and walking along this wall for a few yards to an opening.  A wide path starts from here, on the left, leading down an easily through the forest.  A short marked detour into the woods can be taken when the main way is wet. In a ¼ mile the head of a forestry track is reached and the leads down to back to the start point.  When the seat is reached, there is the option of returning by the path through the woods on the right, or continuing along the forestry road - which adds almost another mile to the walk.                                            top