Tarfessock is a hill in the Range of the Awful Hand, a sub-range of the Galloway Hills range, part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. A craggy hill, it is the lowest Donald in the range, being completely obscured by Kirriereoch Hill when viewed from the Merrick. A nearby south top is dotted with a series of lochans. A farmhouse of the same name is located to the west, which along with the hill was at one time the property of the Marquess of Ailsa.
The name Tarfessock may mean "the desolate conical hill" () or "conical hill of the barbs" (), but in either case the name originally referred to the west shoulder of the mountain. Maps from the 1600s and 1700s show the summit as "Bin Meanach", i.e. between the taller Kirriereoch Hill and Shalloch on Minnoch, both of which also have mismatched English names.
Subsidiary SMC Summits
Summit Height (m) Listing Tarfessock South Top 620 DT,sSim
References