White Coomb

About White Coomb

White Coomb is the highest point of the Moffat Hills and of the registration county of Dumfriesshire, and the fourth highest summit in southern Scotland. Its broad top is screened by surrounding hills on every side but east and south-east, so its full bulk is only apparent from that direction.

Most walkers start from the National Trust for Scotland car park below the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall on the A708 between Moffat and Selkirk. A direct line goes west up a steep ridge; a path above the north side of the falls is the alternative. The Tail Burn must be crossed above the waterfall — natural stepping stones exist, but spate or ice can make them hazardous. Beyond it a wall through peat and heather leads to Upper Tarnberry, and the east ridge, steep and craggy in places, runs on to the summit. A longer approach past Loch Skeen, Mid Craig and Donald's Cleuch Head has been described by the Daily Telegraph as among Britain's finest day walks.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on White Coomb (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 55.423, -3.324. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is cairn. On broad or flat summits the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

obvious summit/Leica RX1250

Record revised

21-Jul-24

Drop measured from

NT151201 · 447 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.

The White Coomb group

6 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with White Coomb as the independent hill at its head.

Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.

Nearest listed peaks