Jonny Muir set a new fastest known time (FKT) for the round of the Ring of Fire in Galloway on July 14. Setting out from Bruce’s Stone at 5am and moving anti-clockwise, he finished 14 hours and six minutes later, surpassing the previous record set by Glyn Jones in 1996 by 38 minutes.
The Ring of Fire (48 miles, 30 summits, 13,000ft) visits three ranges – the Minnigaff Hills, the Rhinns of Kells and the Range of the Awful Hand, climbing as high as 843 metres at Merrick. While the main ridges are runnable, the approaches, particularly on the Rhinns of Kells, are extremely rough and pathless.
Travelling solo and unsupported, and navigating on-sight, Jonny struggled early on, repeatedly twisting an ankle and was quickly exhausted by the tussocks around Curleywee, Cairngarroch and Darrou. Relief at reaching the end of the Rhinns of Kells was tempered by the dreadful descent of Black Craig to Loch Doon: head-high bracken, tussocks and lurking ankle-snapping holes. The reward for getting to the bottom was being deposited in a saturated fire break in dense forestry.
After six miles on forest roads, Jonny had to hack through another maze of trees to gain Shiel Hill. From there, he had four hours and 40 minutes to cover the next nine summits of the Range of the Awful Hand to break the record. Despite a poor line of descent off Bennan, the final hill, he reached Bruce’s Stone in a cloud of midges with time to spare – and was finally able to lie down.
Conclusion: it was very hard.
Jonny Muir