Craig Neldricken

A modest Galloway summit rising above the dark waters of Loch Neldricken, positioned between the higher mass of Merrick to the northwest and Craignaw to the east. The terrain is typical Southern Uplands moorland, with rough grasses and scattered rocky outcrops. Usually climbed as part of a longer circuit exploring the remote lochs beneath the Merrick range.

• •The name derives from Gaelic elements meaning 'rock of the brambles' or possibly 'rock of thorns', referring to the scrubby vegetation that would have clung to its lower slopes before forestry altered the landscape.
• •Loch Neldricken immediately below the summit features the ominously named 'Murder Hole' marked on modern maps, though SR Crockett relocated this name in his novel 'The Raiders' from its original location on the Glen Trool to Straiton road where robbery victims were disposed of.
• •The loch beneath the hill has undergone significant environmental recovery, with pH levels rising from a severely acidic 4.4 in 1978 to 5.4 by 2003, allowing aquatic life to gradually return after decades of acid rain damage.
• •Craig Neldricken sits at the heart of the 'Range of the Awful Hand', the dramatic group of Galloway summits whose configuration on the map supposedly resembles an outstretched palm with five radiating ridges.
• •Despite standing over 550 metres, the hill sees relatively few visitors compared to nearby Merrick, as most walkers are drawn to Scotland's most southerly Corbett rather than its surrounding satellites.