Cairnsmore of Fleet

About Cairnsmore of Fleet

Cairnsmore of Fleet is an isolated granite massif in the Southern Uplands, unafforested, with its high point about ten kilometres east of Newton Stewart. It is the highest of the Solway Hills and the most southerly of Scotland's 219 Grahams — strictly its subsidiary top, Knee of Cairnsmore, is the country's most southerly mountain.

The hill holds the largest area of open moorland in Galloway and is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest; the summit and eastern flanks, 1,922 hectares in all, form a national nature reserve managed by NatureScot.

Southward the view runs over the Cree Estuary and Wigtown Bay to the Lake District, the Isle of Man and Eryri, with the Galloway Hills to the north and Ireland to the west. It lies in Dumfries and Galloway, historically in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Cairnsmore of Fleet (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

General position for Scotland — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in Scotland ·check another location.

Daylight at this summit today

Sunrise

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 54.975, -4.343. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is cairn. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Abney level/Leica RX1250

Record revised

15-Dec-24

Drop measured from

NX535740 · 189 m

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

Get food nearby

3 places to eat or drink within 10 km of the summit, rated under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (Scotland runs its own Food Hygiene Information Scheme, a pass/fail equivalent).

Classifications and ratings are the local authority's own and can be coarse — this is a lead, not a guarantee of opening hours or that food is served to non-residents. Follow a name through to the official rating page to check, and confirm before you rely on it.

Food hygiene data from the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland (Open Government Licence v3.0). Distances and directions computed by OpenFell from the summit.

Nearest listed peaks