Cardon Hill

Often tackled as part of the steep Culter Hills circuit, this high, rounded summit offers a classic Southern Upland experience. The ascent from Glenkirk is an uncompromising pull up grassy slopes, but the reward is a grandstand view across the Biggar Gap to the isolated, hulking mass of Tinto.

• •The name likely derives from the Cumbric 'caer', meaning a fort, and 'din', meaning hill, suggesting its use as a natural lookout or defensive position by Brittonic-speaking tribes long before the arrival of Scots or Gaelic.
• •The hill forms the northern anchor of a high, undulating ridge; walkers usually bag it alongside its slightly higher neighbour, Chapelgill Hill, which sits just a short, airy stroll to the south-east.
• •From the summit, the view to the south-west reveals the sprawling complex of the Lowther Hills, identifiable by the white 'golf ball' radar station atop Great Dun Fell.
• •The western flanks are notoriously steep, rising abruptly from the valley floor with a gradient that makes the zig-zagging sheep tracks the most sensible route for humans to follow.
• •In the Southern Uplands, twenty metres of height is everything; Cardon Hill is frequently relegated to 'secondary' status simply because the neighbouring Chapelgill Hill happens to be slightly taller.