Caerloch Dhu [Shalloch on Minnoch North Top]

Sitting on the northern shoulder of the Range of the Awful Hand, this subsidiary summit offers a wild, peat-hags-and-grass introduction to the high Galloway tops. While often bypassed for its higher neighbour, it provides a superior vantage point over the rugged granite wilderness of the Silver Flowe and the remote Loch Macaterick.

• •The name likely stems from the Gaelic 'Cathair', meaning a chair or seat, and 'dubh', meaning black, potentially referring to the dark, craggy appearance of its eastern face when viewed from the glens below.
• •This summit marks the northernmost high point of the Range of the Awful Hand, a series of five ridges that resemble a splayed hand when viewed from above; the North Top serves as the 'fingertip' reaching toward the Stinchar valley.
• •The view east into the heart of the Galloway Forest Park reveals the Silver Flowe, a rare and precarious patterned bog system that is considered one of the least disturbed mire systems in Europe.
• •Most walkers encounter this hill as the first significant climb on the approach from Stinchar Bridge, where the path leaves the forestry plantations behind for the open, windswept moorland characteristic of the Southern Uplands.
• •In a region famous for the density of its commercial timber, the climb provides the distinct relief of finally reaching a height where the trees are forced to admit defeat.