Introduction The Loch Grannoch slabs lie near the Loch of the same name. They are on an outlier of Cairnsmore of Fleet in the southern Galloway Hills. There is a wealth of beautiful granite rock on the mountain, but finding continuous rock is not so easy.....
Access The access is long, but can be done relatively quickly by bike. Park at the Fleet railway viaduct near the disused Gatehouse of Fleet Station (at the end of the B796 from Gatehouse of Fleet). From here follow forestry roads as marked on the map, and signposted on the ground, to the abandoned Loch Grannoch Lodge at the south end of Loch Grannoch. From the Lodge the first slabs are reached in about 10-20 minutes walk, the way is obvious. An overview of the various climbing areas is pictured below.
Climbing on some of the higher buttresses and areas in the spring is restricted due to nesting birds.
There is more climbing fairly nearby on the Knee of Cairnsmore and Spout of the Clints, see our new Cairnsmore of Fleet page.
Some of the best climbing is on the lowest slabs, known as the Lodge Slabs. This photo and the one below were taken in autumn after a rather damp few days. In good conditions the slabs can be a lot drier than this!!
A short way further up the hill are the very clean M slabs, with their motorway network....routes here are 12-15m long by the time you get to the belays. Small cams recommended, but even then many routes are tricky to protect. M63 is particularly recommended, but has a very sketchy finish.
Further up the hill to the west is the Madman area, with some rather vegetated routes.
A detailed photo of the excellent rock on the central M-slabs. The obvious cracks are the splitter HVS line of M1 on the left and M6 on the right (the diagonal crack)
Enjoy it!!
