Craignaw


Craignaw is a hill in the Dungeon Hills range in the Galloway Hills, part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Unlike many hills in the Southern Uplands, Craignaw has a complex and rocky summit area, with a long line of crags and rough ground on the east side. The hill is largely composed of granite. Near the north end of the hill is an interesting area of terrain known as the "Deil's Bowlin' Green" where various rounded granite boulders are scatterd at random over an area of nearly horizontal granite slabs. These are believed to be glacial erratics or result from a similar glacier process. On the west side of the hill, near grid reference NX458831, a few hundred meters from the summit is an F-111E Aardvark crash site. The site is marked by a small memorial to the two US Airforce pilots who were killed in the accident. Although the crash happened on December 19, 1979 there are still small amounts of aircraft debris in the area.

Walking

Craignaw is quite a remote hill and climbing it is a long and rough walk from the road-ends at either Craigencallie or Bruces Stane.

Climbing

There is some good but short rock climbing on Craignaw at Snibe Hill, Memorial Crag and Scotland Slab. However, in winter after a good freeze the broken ground on the east side of the hill has some of the best ice climbs in Southern Scotland with routes of up to 150 m in length. The most famous of these is the frozen waterfall of the Dow Spout.