01 Several routes onto the Merrick from Bruce's Stone car park by Loch Trool are shown in the above map. Obviously you can pick and mix any combination of these routes but the one we are looking at in this web gallery is the blue route up over Eschoncan, Bennan and Benyellary to Merrick. We will be returning to Loch Trool on the "tourist route" - the most commonly used route onto Merrick - which is linear (it comes back the same way as it went up). So we have simply added a little loop on the outward journey.
The green route brings you down the Rig of the Gloom to the Buchan Burn which you then follow to Culsharg where you rejoin the tourist route. It can be quite messy and awkward coming down the side of the Buchan Burn.
The purple route brings you down Redstone Rig to the Grey Man of the Merrick from whence you could either follow the Buchan Burn down to Culsharg or get up onto the Buchan Ridge as shown here, get all the great views all the way down the ridge and keep out of the mucky stuff along the Buchan Burn.
The red route (by the lochs) is often combined with the tourist route so that you go up by the lochs and Redstone Rig and then back down over Benyellary (by the tourist route).
It is obviously much more interesting to combine routes than simply go up and back on the same route.