Apart from the low mist the walk was well attended and a great success. 

The Ceilidh at night went extremely well.

The full report is at the bottom of this page.

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Off they go.

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There was a larger contingent than normal for the July outing to “The Grey Mares Tail” in the Tweedsmuir area due to this being the Mountaineering clubs 35^th Anniversary.
Due to the special circumstances surrounding this walk attempts were made to contact past members and invite them along and it was gratifying to see the response that was made.
As this was the clubs inaugural walk there were a few faces among the regulars that evoked memories of years gone by.
The group of 28 followed their original route by setting off from the large National Trust car park and then ascended up the rather steep and narrow path following the famous waterfalls to Loch Skeen.
From here a short break was had, however, unfortunately due to thick mist, visibility was severely curtailed.
A slight detour was now made that took the group over the stream leading out of the loch to contour around the boggy path before starting to ascend uphill to their first hill called “Lochcraig Head” at 2,650`. The path then followed a series of undulating hills through thick mist and navigation had to be very accurate due to the rolling nature of this terrain with no obvious landmarks.
The mist by now was beginning to thin out a little as the group descended and they were able to see the descent down to their next objective of the famous “Megget Stone”.
This stone marks the highest point of the minor road between Tweedsmuir in the Tweed valley to St Mary’s loch and so provides an excellent start to ascend the hills around.
From here they had a short break and were entertained to see a succession of vintage cars passing through due to a rally that was being held in the area.
The next hill that they were due to ascend was also covered in mist which is Broad Law, this is the highest mountain in the group at 2.772` and was the members ultimate objective.
After the initial steep ascent at the start of this hill, the group enjoyed what was literally a stroll over an easy broad grassy ridge, eventually reaching the summit of Broad Law, which is surrounded by the large radio masts and antennas built years before, unfortunately they had to rely on memory alone due to the conditions that now surrounded them.
The path off the mountain now wound down the access road used by the service industry to maintain the masts and which weaved backward and forward through and eventually came out at the roadside just down from the “Crook Inn” a famous hostelry dating back to 1604. Now sadly closed and no longer in use.
Due to the special nature of the walk the Club had arranged a celebratory ceilidh in the village hall at New Lanark where the ones that still had energy to burn had plenty of opportunity to let their hair down and brought to an end a very successful Anniversary day.

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