Walk: Garelet from Gameshope with a grand finale

📌 Talla Linnfoots, Scottish Borders
★★★

Games Hope Burn flows north from the Moffat Hills watershed into Talla Reservoir. Its course most be one of the most underappreciated in the Southern Uplands, featuring dozens of picturesque waterfalls and plunge pools. Above it, Garelet Dod and Erie Hill are grassy summits – one flat-topped, one airier – but the highlight is perhaps saved until last at Garelet Hill. The lowest of the three tops, it features a battered trig pillar and a fantastic, sudden outlook over the reservoir and the Megget-Talla road pass. Expect pathless and boggy ground at times, but the scenery compensates.

📷 Chronological photo guide

🌍 Location

📌 Start / finish at Talla Linnfoots, on unclassified road at east end of Talla Reservoir

🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NT 134202

🛰️ GPS coordinates: 55.467571,-3.371616

❌ No public transport within 1 mi

🚗 Verge parking

📝 Key info

▶ 10 km / 6 mi | ▲ 600 m | ⌛ 4-4.5 hr

Features: △ Garelet Dod (698 m, Donald); △ Erie Hill (690 m, Donald); △ Garelet Hill (681 m)

⬤ Tough | Good track to Gameshope Bothy, then fainter path along left bank of burn with boggy areas, fading on Crunklie Moss. Ascent to Garelet Dod is mostly pathless; there are grassy paths for most of the rest of the route. ⚠️ Burn crossing at Crunklie Moss could be difficult after heavy rain – if the burn is high, use the bridge a mile further downstream at Gameshope Bothy.

➡️ Clockwise circuit: start – Gameshope – cross Games Hope Burn at Crunklie Moss – Garelet Dod – Erie Hill – Garelet Hill – start

Download file for GPS

🥾 On our last visit

Wildlife: Lizards, wheatears.

Weather: Sunny with a little wispy high cloud. Temperature rising to high teens at the finish, gentle cool breeze.

April 2026