Cacra Hill, GM/SS-179 - 471m ASL - NT 317 173 - OS Explorer 331 - 1 SOTA point            

Tuesday 6th September 2022 - Turner Cleuch Law GM/SS-140 & Cacra Hill GM/SS-179

We drove away from Turner Cleuch Law GM/SS-140, down the hill, and back to the Tushielaw Inn for a restful afternoon.  Cacra Hill dominates the view from the rear of the Tushielaw Inn; the bar and two of the bedrooms look directly out on it.  It appears incredibly close, but the best parking spot and walk start point is on the other side of the hill (south), and about a 2 mile drive away.  We headed out from the inn after 5pm BST using the window of good weather to bag the most local SOTA summit to the inn.

The mist had largely moved away from earlier, although there were still a few patches about.  We parked at NT 31838 16308 beside the wide stony track entrance.  The large metal deer gate was not locked and we could let ourselves through to walk up the meandering stony track to gain height.  After then negotiating a steep bank, the track petered out and it was a case of following the heather and long grass topped ridge to the highest point.

I operated on 20m CW, and Jimmy on 2m FM.  With us both qualifying the activation by 1800 UTC and Jimmy having the 2m MFD set-up - with its potential for horizontal polarisation - it was tempting to stay around and compile a token 2m activity contest entry.  However, only weak faint signals were heard and we agreed it would not be time well spent to go chasing them.  We packed up and descended, and got ourselves back to the inn for the evening. 

Next up the following morning would be Ward Law GM/SS-119.