It wasn’t just young farmers who took part in a fundraising 24-hour climbathon of Criffel recently.
Old farmers also took their turn scaling the 569 metre-high hill in aid of the Royal Highland Education Trust’s Dumfries and Galloway branch.
The gruelling charity challenge kicked off on Friday, August 6 at 7pm.
Organised by Lower Nithsdale Young Farmers group, teams of dedicated volunteers took it in turns to scale the peak until 7pm on Saturday, August 7.
And as if that wasn’t tough enough, some of them completed the feat by donning fancy dress - and some climbed it more than once.
Every year, the club raises money for charity and this year’s challenge started on what would have been Dumfries Show day.
The club’s assistant secretary, Elspeth Purdie, said: “With a yellow weather warning issued for the weekend there were worries that the event would be cancelled or that teams would pull out, but everyone rallied together and came out in force to take on the challenge, with some teams even still wearing their fancy dress outfits despite the rain.
“Over the 24 hours, we had 98 people and 16 dogs take on the challenge, including 13 past chairmen and 10 past secretaries of LNYFC.
“Some even took it on more than once, making an incredible total of 105 trips over the 24 hours.”
The money raised is for the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) which is a charity that works all across Scotland “taking the classroom to the countryside”.
It works with volunteers to provide free education and experiential learning opportunities for children and young people. During the pandemic RHET Dumfries and Galloway were not able to hold their usual fundraising events therefore Lower Nithsdale chose them as the charity to support with their Criffel Crawl challenge.
Elspeth added: “We want to thank everyone that supported the charity challenge in any way whether it was climbing or donating and the justgiving page will be left open if anyone wishes to make final donations.”
To make a donation, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lower-nithsdale-criffelcrawl
