Lowther Hill road

OverTheHillAt21

Can someone describe the condition of the road up to Lowther Hill? It isn't listed on the wikipedia list of highest paved public roads in Scotland* but I'm not sure if its because of the surface or because access is restricted (no cars I think someone said)? Thinking of having a go up it but on my brand new shiny road bike

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_highest_roads_in_Scotland

*the lower bit up to Wanlockhead is there at 10th.

tedmaul

I did this a couple of months ago - it's restricted access, but no problems getting on to it with the bike. The road surface itself is about as good as you're ever going to get on a hill climb in scotland tbh. There's never any traffic up there really, so it's in good condition pretty much the whole way.

It's a great climb, but the last section is pretty hard going! Good view once you're up there though.

OverTheHillAt21

Thanks for the feedback, really must give this a try!

tedmaul

No probs - it's one of the best climbs in scotland imo.

i did it as part of a 100 mile route coming from Hamilton - Strava link below. if you check out the elevation profile below you can't fail to spot the hill! The full climb from the bottom of the Mennock Pass to the top of that and then on to Lowther Hill and up to the summit of that too just off 600m in total.

http://www.strava.com/activities/65353984#

Mennock Pass is fairly steady for the most part but quite draining with a few steeper ramps as you get to the top. Made tougher by having 75km in the legs already.

Lowther Hill starts off with a couple of ramps then levels out for a bit before you hit the switchbacks. Then it's 10% up to over 20% into the corners to get you up to the radar station itself. I did it back in July and it was around 26 degrees up there - i was fairly cooked by the time i made it up.

If you're looking for another good climb in the area, check out this one up to the transmitter on the hill above Sanquhar as well:

http://www.strava.com/segments/1838525

I did that a couple of weeks earlier - it's 6km up a dead end road but at a constant 5% gradient. Quite unusual for a climb in Scotland, in that there's hardly any variation in gradient the whole way up.

OverTheHillAt21

Very interesting to see your route, thanks. I live in Glasgow myself but I don't have a car and I couldn't do that sort of distance in a day. Options I'm looking at are train to Sanquhar and do a loop of the B roads over the hills returning on the train; or possibly going one-way from Sanquhar back to Glasgow. Not quite in that shape yet but a reasonable target.