The level of this river can fluctuate very rapidly as its catchment area is a series of steep sided valleys on the SW (rain gathering) aspect of the Lowther hills. There are no large forests, bogs or lochs upstream which would help damp river level fluctuations. This is compounded by the narrow nature of its gorge; flood water entering is constricted and the extra water can only go up, rapidly. At high levels, several "falls" are not caused by rock ledges but by constrictions in the width of the gorge causing a damming effect. These falls do not exist at low water. The grade at low water is 3+, at high flows it is sustained 5. A member of our club had a serious swim here and the rescuer also lost his boat, despite pulling it 2 metres up the bank. The river rose that much in 15 minutes. Put in is off the B740 at NS780131 take out at NS773107 below the A76 bridge, NW of Sanquhar. Time: 1hour. Hazards: Sudden rises in water level, and trees.
The UK Rivers Guidebook: Crawick page.
Mike
and Max at the start of the gorge.
Federico.
Max
in the cauldron.
Davie
and Max
Davie
The
Crawick Gorge
Davie.
When our club lost a boat in spate conditions, the level was up to the trees
which were a major hazard.
Davie.
Davie
Davie
Max
and Davie
Max.
All photos on this page are © the Davie Quinn collection. Photos of Davie were taken by Mike Connor.
Site editor: Douglas E Wilcox (D.E.Wilcox@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
)
Page created 19/01/04
Page last updated: 19/01/04
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