The steepest hill, using a direct path, between 2,000 and 2,500 feet from road to summit!

Two weeks ago I visited the lovely Carrifran Wildwood to park in order to visit the summit of Carrifran Gans, the Donald summit high above the wood.  I had an enjoyable walk round the wood because two of your volunteers that I asked, thought that there might be a route direct from the car park, as I also wrongly thought.  Eventually, I found the correct route that starts away from your wood, by a cattle grid.  I had an enjoyable walk but more of a climb, in fact, to the summit cairn because it must be the steepest major hill in Scotland because the summit is so near to a road.  You climb 565 m in 2 Kms of horizontal distance.  Therefore, 28% average steepness from road to cairn, with slopes of 60-80%.  On the descent, it was the nearest thing I've got to via ferrata, with my hanging on to the barbed wire free but, metal fence, on my left.

Perhaps, when you next replace the map, you might consider showing the starting point for the path to Carrifran Gans because more hill walkers, once they have visited Munros and Corbett summits, start on the Donald and Graham summits - like me.  And your hidden away tiny car park is the best place to park!  In fact, most walkers would visit it from White Coomb and return via White Coomb.

Twelve months ago I found your woodland planting scheme at Dryhopehope, 3 Kms north of St Mary's Loch and above the Kirkstead Burn.  I was told it is on the Philip Hawk Estate but the Borders Forest Trust did the actual planting.  Is that correct?  Near the Conservation Project I collected about twenty plastic tree guards and put them in a neat pile.  It was impossible to take them away for proper disposal because I was on a mountain bike with no pannier rack to tie them to.  The wind soon blew them away, of course.  But, do you have a policy of going back to collect the plastic guards after the tree has burst them off as it has grown?  Or, have you tried the new square cardboard guards that I have seen on a new Severn Trent Water wood on Romsley Hill in the West Midlands?  Are they suitable, have you found?