Tuesday 31st May 2022

After yesterday’s struggle with non-existent core paths, electric fences, barbed wire and so on we were wondering whether there was a better way to tackle today’s walk. So Jill started interrogating the blogs of several coast walkers who have gone before us. In short we discovered that a majority ignored the coast of the north of the Rhins of Galloway and followed the Southern Upland way through to Stranraer. Those who attempted to walk the coast suffered for their passion and often finished up cutting inland to roads and tracks. I looked at the map and felt that I could not ignore this substantial hunk of coast and the lighthouse at Corsewall. Moreover, in late spring you can almost see the grass growing not to mention all the other vegetation so we were certainly going to find it tough getting through. Most walkers have reported impenetrable gorse, challenging deer fences and inventive route finding.

I decided we should follow the Southern Upland Way and, where it turns inland, we would “eyeball” the onwards prospects and, if it looked hopeless, we would follow lanes and tracks to Corsewall.

We got the 07:58 bus to Portpatrick and were walking by 8:30 having got a couple of rolls made up for us at the local shop.

Portpatrick looked wonderful in the morning light. We strolled along the harbour and climbed the steps to the cliff.

I walked the Southern Upland Way in May 2004 but I had not remembered much of the route. There are stunning views into rocky clefts and there was a proper path to walk along. Bliss! We came to Port Mora and then Port Kale where the telecommunication cables to Northern Ireland once left Britain with the quaint huts now redundant – even as an information centre.

At Killantrigan Bay there is the lighthouse.

I had planned to walk along the beach and climb the cliff on a track by Knock House. Unfortunately the tide was too far in to do that but we wondered if we could traverse the grassy margin at the top of the rocky spurs to reach the beach below Knock House. We found a narrow trod but it soon involved some fairly precipitous drops and, even if we had been keen to tackle them, it was going to make for very slow progress completely negating any value in “cutting off the corner” especially as the prospects beyond Knock House looked limited. So we turned back and rejoined the road.

So we were back following the route of the Southern Upland Way a little further until it left the B738 while we continued northward. Tarmac walking is dull and we had nearly 12 miles of it to do. The road is extremely quiet. Also there were still some bluebells in the woods and pink campion along the road side with occasional cow parsley. Rhododendrons were in flower and I have to admit they are very bright and cheerful even though I really hate them for being an invasive species that have escaped from so many country estates and now require major work to grub them out.

The sun  was shining and we could see the sea from time to time. There were views of Northern Ireland, the Isle of Arran, Ailsa Craig (famed for curling stones and from where the granite for all Olympic Curling stones must be quarried). Beyond Arran the low line of the Mull of Kintyre could be seen and even further away were the Paps of Jura. So all was not bad!

The Rhins of Galloway is a very prosperous area. There is much money in grass (as there is in muck but obviously even better returns if you remove the middle-man, or cattle). All the farms and houses look neat and tidy and so far we have not seen a derelict farm. The fences are well-maintained and substantial and even the stone walls have electric fences on both sides to prevent cattle damaging the walls.

We were amused to see an old Nissen-style building where someone had replaced the door with a modern plastic high efficiency door. Clearly too much money around.

We turned onto a minor road towards the Mains of Aries but then turned onto a track around Knockenharry Hill.

We stopped on a grassy bank and had our lunch. Going down the hill we came  to Valleyfield Farm; it was a deserted farm though the house had clearly been started on a renovation project which had then stalled.

Gradually the views opened up more and more and the tip of the Corsewall Lighthouse came into view. As we got closer the traffic increased and because we were on a single track road we had to get out of the way of the various vehicles; most drivers were very considerate. Eventually we arrived at the lighthouse and we could see the full panorama.

The lighthouse buildings are now a hotel and fortunately for us they were doing a very reasonable afternoon tea which we felt we had earned. Originally I had hoped we might stay for a night or two at the lighthouse but they were already fully booked. It would, however be a great place to stay and enjoy some fine dining.

After a leisurely tea and a general look around we got a taxi back to Stranraer, the nearest bus stop being a good two miles away.

Monday 30th May 2022

This is the 200th day on which I have been walking the coast of mainland Britain. I have walked about 3500 miles which is an average of 17.5 miles per day.

As to today’s walk; it was mixed.

We got the bus to Port Logan and started off along the path which should be a core path. There was no marker for the start but we followed the track to the Port Logan Fish Ponds.

Feeling confident, we continued along the path beyond the ponds as it worked along the rocky shoreline.

Near Robertson’s Bay we came to an impasse. There was curious “shack” perched between some rocks and the path beyond disappeared into a vertical drop.

The alternative faint “path” went up a gully but quickly became too steep and overgrown to follow – if it really ever existed. So we retraced our steps a short a little distance until we could find our way up to the cliff top at Clanghie Point and through a gate. We had some fields to cross and generally we managed to follow tractor tracks which was quicker than traipsing all around the field margins though it was probably why we missed seeing the natural arch at the foot of the cliffs.

We could then follow a track which rejoins the originally planned route a bit further on. There was a field full of cows and calves and then we spotted a bull who was busy serving his ladies. Fortunately that was distracting him and we hurried across the field to the next gate keeping below his sight line.

We walked around Peter’s Paps and were back on route. There was a complete lack of marking of the path and so at times we were guessing a little. We clambered out of a field at Port Gill and two collie dogs came barking somewhat aggressively in our direction – followed by a couple of turkeys . (Previous coast walkers have had a similar experience here). Jill talked to the collies softly and we carried on along the track past a very overgrown gateway, towards a small cottage where I hope there would be a path off to the left. There was no such exit and as we stood wondering what to do, an elderly lady leaning on a walking stick appeared from the cottage. She asked where we were going and obviously knew the terrain and explained that the path did indeed go through the very overgrown gateway we had just passed and that it wasn’t very easy to get through. We thanked her and followed her instructions though it was certainly very overgrown and quite rough but we made it to near Drumbreddan as planned.

From here on there was a good track which was easy to follow. Our spirits lifted. 

The path here had gates and an occasional marker but significantly there was a signpost with its metal arms removed to hide the existence of a path – no doubt the handiwork of a local farmer. We managed to keep going on the planned path albeit rather slowly. Near Kenmuir Graves we were struggling through overgrown fields when all of a sudden there was a pedestrian gate leading down a gravelled path to a fairly new bridge. This looked hopeful!

Over the bridge the path turns seaward – but it also disappeared into dense undergrowth as it went down a gully.

According to the map, the path would loop round a buttress and up another gully and so I was far from confident about following this since we were struggling through dense vegetation as it was. As it turned out, as we turned the end of the buttress we could see two smart houses overlooking Float Bay with a degraded tarmac road leading  out. So we made our way through the dense shoots of bracken, fortunately not yet fully ferned, and approached the houses.

The houses were deserted with blinds down so, rather than walk on by, we decided to make use of their garden bench for our coffee.

After coffee we headed up the track (and noticed a Discovery was parked adjacent to the farther house.) We turned left after emerging from Float Bay and headed for Meikle Float along a good farm track and even stopped to chat to some young farm workers with a three-legged dog who could outrun his four-legged colleague.

The track eventually came through a field ending near a wind turbine in an adjacent field but separated by a wall and barbed-wire beside a deep gully banked by high nettles. Here there was no obvious way on.

We were in a  corner of a field with no way out.

We headed to the cliff top in the hopes of finding a path where the path on the map was meant to be but the cliff top was totally overgrown. So we retraced our steps to the corner of the field and made a complicated exit involving three electric fences and a decidedly unstable stone wall.

We headed up to Cairnmon Fell past lots of frisky cattle and then walking along the steep-sided valley until we could see a way to the bottom, we jumped across a burn over a fence and finally up a track to a road at Cairngarroch.

We were now fairly tired, dispirited and well behind schedule and so we opted to abandon any further attempt to follow the mythical core path and walk the road until Morroch Bay where we believed a proper coast path ran through to Portpatrick. Walking the road was tedious but we made good progress and looking back along the cliff tops we knew we had taken the right decision as we simply couldn’t pick out anything resembling the line of a path. At Morroch Bay we were delighted to find a signposted core path complete with gates and a walkable path. Our spirits lifted and at 15:30 we eventually found found a place on a wall to sit and have our lunch.

The rest of the afternoon’s walk was a complete pleasure – lovely views and easy walking.

We came to Dunskey Castle after crossing the pretty Craigoch Burn.

Further on we crossed the bridge over a deep ravine parallel with the old railway line and came into Portpatrick.

The pretty harbour town looked wonderful in the sunshine. We decided to get a taxi back to the hotel rather than wait for the 17:45 bus but we still had time for a quick ice cream before the taxi arrived.

If it had not been for the final 2.5 miles it would have been a very dispiriting day.

Sunday 29th May 2022

Being a Sunday there are no buses and so we will need a taxi to get between the beginning and end of the walk. Because it is a peninsula walk the start and finish are only 4.5 miles apart – but walking a hilly road back across the peninsula to the car after 19 miles of cliff walking might be too much. We opted for the certainty of driving to the end of the walk at Port Logan and getting a taxi from there to Drummore so we would be walking to the car. Unfortunately the only taxis are in Stranraer and so they insisted on charging from Stranraer. So that was £27 for a 4.5 mile ride.

We were walking by 9:00 and it was a sunny  day with intermittent cloud and a light wind. We were amused and pleased by the following sign.

The path remained on the cliff top and in some places the long vegetation had been strimmed. In others it had not.

At Maryport Bay, which is really just caravans, some campers had pitched their tents right across the path. That’s the right to roam and wild camp for you.

It was all very attractive and the sea was twinkling in the sunshine. At East Tarbet there is a semi-formal, wild camping site.

From there we continued along the coast path to a stone wall that took us up to the lighthouse and a quick tour of Scotland’s most southerly point, its Land’s End. Fortunately there are no tacky tourist attractions, there is just the RSPB info centre, the lighthouse which one can go into if one has the time and an excellent café which requires a visit even if you don’t really have the time. There are also views across to the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland; they are roughly equidistant from the lighthouse.

We needed a rest and the café was the obvious place. We had some excellent coffee and superb traybakes and ordered some take-out sandwiches for our lunch.

Refreshed, we set off on the west coast of the Mull of Galloway. We were no longer on the Mull of Galloway Trail as that ended at the lighthouse but the path was listed as a core path.

There was no sign indicating the start but it was fairly obvious to experienced coast walkers like us where the coast was and so we followed it along the cliff top. I noticed this round hole not far from where a CCTV camera was set up by the RSPB to monitor a nest. There is a cave marked on the map – perhaps that is what it is but we did not investigate because we only saw it when we were on the next headland. There was a field with a lot of cows with calves and possibly a bull. (It had a ring in its nose but what it had elsewhere was hidden by all the cows milling around)

We came to a proper footpath gate so we knew we were “on track”. The path continued keeping quite close the the cliff edge. There were one or two footpath markers and even one very substantial footbridge. Fortunately any field margins we had to walk had already been cut for silage and so we could walk on the very short stubble remaining. We did notice at least two way marker posts that had been removed from the ground complete with their concreted base. This suggested to a degree of agricultural intervention since I cannot believe any vandal came a long with pick and shovel to remove entire posts.

Then we came to a formal sign welcoming walkers to the Rhinns of Galloway and explaining the exceptional scenery etc. We passed through a pedestrian gate and that was it. The path disappeared into dense gorse which we struggled through it for 200 yards or so before scrambling over a barbed wire-topped wall into a field.

All this made for slow progress and so it was not until 14:00 that we stopped to eat our sandwiches somewhere near Knock Knowe I think. We were getting used to making up our route as we went along, trying to choose the line of least resistance, however I was well aware we were making quite slow progress.

Eventually we came to the lighthouse at Crammeg Head. The current lighthouse was built in 2009 though there has been a lighthouse on this site since 1913. Unusually there is no track from the lighthouse, I suppose it is entirely serviced by helicopter and so a temporary track for the time of construction was all that was required.

We had planned to follow this so-called core path as far as Portencorkrie Bay and then turn inland at Bay House. The decision to abandon that idea was taken for us by the complete absence of any path and more barbed-wire obstacles so we turned to Slockmill and followed the road to the east side of Cairn Fell, where another core path leads eventually to Port Logan. The roads and tracks we followed were extremely quiet, in fact zero vehicles. Where we passed the end of the track from Bay House, there was no track or path to be seen and so we were pleased with diversion we decided upon. There is not much to say about the walk to Port Logan. We were briefly entertained by a hare running along the track ahead of us.

Saturday 28th May 2022

Today we start on a circuit of the Rhins of Galloway, a hammer head of two peninsulas formed by Luce Bay to the south and Loch Ryan to the north. Having consulted the core paths map for DumGal (Dumfries and Galloway) there are core paths pretty much the whole way round which is always reassuring.

For the sake of making sure we caught the bus back from Drummore this afternoon, we took a taxi for the short run to Dunragit rather than get the bus an hour later.

This morning seemed like the start of a perfect day. The wind had dropped and the sun was shining and there were a few, fluffy, white clouds. We had a few miles of road walking to take us to Clayshant where we joined the route of the Mull of Galloway Trail which follows the coast to the lighthouse on the Mull of Galloway. Most of the road walking was alongside the Luce Bay MOD ranges. We were interested to see one entrance for a “Hard Target” and further on an entrance for “Soft Target”. I am not sure of the difference but I think hard targets are for armour piercing missiles as opposed to them being difficult to hit. The memorial is to two men killed at West Freugh when the RAF was practising dropping munitions for use in the Falklands War. A cluster bomb exploded killing the two men.

At Clayshant a path runs to the sea shore between the MOD base and the Clayshant quarry, now mainly used as a dirt-track circuit. After a short distance and having crossed a burn we got onto the beach.

It was high tide but there was still a good margin of firm sand to walk along.

At the end of the bay where the sand runs out is the village of Sandhead. We enquired of a man getting into his wet-suit if there was a café. He said that the hotel was the best bet, the former tea room having closed. Unfortunately the hotel had no staff until midday and so we had to sit on the front and have coffee from our flasks. 

Moving on after coffee we followed the shoreline path; since the tide was right in a short wall along a sea wall was required. After that the path was either just on the firm ground at the top of the beach or had been washed away leaving us to walk on the shingle.

At Chapel Rossan Bay, the Mull of Galloway trail takes a devious route to avoid a short distance on the beach which in retrospect I feel sure would have been walkable. It probably added a mile and certainly wasted time. The path continued alternately on the shingle beach which was slow going or on the firm ground higher up but generally a bit overgrown and eroded.

Shortly afterwards we came to a crenellated tower which is apparently the remains of a windmill; that seems odd to me but research shows that it was just a simple tower windmill and the crenellation is a more recent addition.

At New England Bay we stopped for lunch. There were no benches in the picnic area but we propped ourselves against the side of a stone information display board and enjoyed lunch in the sunshine.

From New England Bay to Drummore the route is effectively along the A716 though in places parallel footpaths have been constructed. These paths are generally a bit overgrown and so we eventually decided to hit the tarmac once more since we could see more of the coast that way and we did not have to struggle with the vegetation.

Along the road there are three pairs of road closure gates in the event of a storm and high tide. They look more like snow gates; other places we have walked just put up notices. It seemed odd that the gates were located either side of the cluster of newish dwellings along the lowest part of the road – one doubts if they are able to get flood insurance.

This brought us into Drummore. There is a coffee shop in the main street where we got drinks whilst waiting for the bus. Just before the bus arrived, a walker with a pony carrying his load passed by.

Friday 27th May 2022

Today we drove to the end of the walk then got a bus back to the beginning because there is a lack of late afternoon buses. Unfortunately the first bus only got us into Port William at 10.06 which is a very late start for us.

The weather forecast was for sunshine and clouds but with a very low risk of rain. More to the point was that strong winds of a steady 20mph gusting to 30 mph were expected for the whole day. It certainly was windy as we set off in to the face of very strong onshore winds. As compensation the sea was very pretty with white horses everywhere.

Unfortunately of our 17.5 mile walk today, all but 2 ½ miles are on roads.

The road out of Port William is not very busy but what traffic there is seems to come very fast. We had hi-vis strips on our rucksack and I wore my hi-vis bib. We only had two incidents. In the first a small car pulled out to overtake a lorry and suddenly saw Jill and had to brake very hard and pull back in and in the process sent a plume of smoke into the wind. In the second an “old boy” pulled out to give us a wide berth but then spotted a motorcycle come round the bend towards him; he swerved away from the motorbikes straight at me but fortunately braked hard enough to stop. Jill says he had a dog on his lap.

All the way we had views over the grassy banks of the sea but the uniform stoney shoreline changed very little as we walked. We found a patch of grass opposite one of the few dwellings at Chippermore Port and sat on the grass for our coffee.

I stopped to take a photo of Chapel Finian otherwise we really did not stop until we reached the Cock Inn at Auchenmalg at about 13;00. Just before we got there we were passed by a couple of touring cyclists with very heavily panniered bikes and then saw, coming towards us, a solo female cyclist who was riding on the wrong side of the road, pausing with her foot on the bank of the verge when a vehicle approached. There can have been very little difference in the view from either side of the road especially from a bike and it seemed foolhardy and dangerous to be doing this on a road with fast traffic and no proper verge.

We were delighted to find the Cock Inn open and found the touring cyclists were already there; we were really pleased to be able to get out of the wind. The inn has a reasonable lunch menu including sandwiches and paninis.

At Auchenmalg the A747 road turns inland. We left the tarmac and followed a core path around the Mull of Sinniness to Stairhaven.

It was a reasonably pleasant walk, the path fairly easy to follow and not too overgrown.

Part way along there are the remains of a causeway which crossed the River Luce to Luce sands on the far side. I have been unable to find out any more about it but it is apparent on the OS map.

Stairhaven seems to consist of a handful of very modern dwellings, mainly bungalows or chalet bungalows belying the name of the village. We were back on to tarmac from Stairhaven onwards.

We walked up to the A75 to cross the River Luce, then along as far as a turn off along the old route of the A75 which we followed for mile or so before turning north to cross the new A75 and follow another new road into Dunragit. When referring to “new” and “old”, the “old” is based on the map on my Satmap which I bought about fifteen years ago and does not show any of the “new” road changes.

We were at the car by 17:00 and only had a ten minute drive to Stranraer where we will be based for five nights as we walk around the Rhins of Galloway.

Thursday 26th May 2022

After yesterday’s 22 miles, I reassured Jill that today’s walk was only 13.25 miles and the last two or three miles would be on the coast road so it would be a bit like a rest day. If only that had been true.

This morning it was tipping with rain as we had breakfast. When we were ready to set off, it was still raining and the forecast was for rain for most of the morning. It was also remarkably windy.

We set off along the core path from the Isle of Whithorn. The core path goes for about 5 miles to St Ninian’s Cave. The path was quite decent and the coast was quite attractive and it was disappointing to be walking one of the nicest sections for a long time in such strong wind and rain. One field we walked through had a large number of young bullocks who fell in behind us and followed us along the path.

Occasionally one would get a bit frisky and charge towards us before skidding to a halt when we turned to face it. We got through the field quite safely.

Even on a dull day there are flowers; lots of sea thrift and also Spring squill (which we had to look up.)

We came through a rather drab looking holiday park at Burrow Head; it is probably quite nice in the sunshine. The views of the cliffs at Burrow Head were good. We then about a mile and a half of reasonable cliff top walking to Port Castle Bay.

The cliff views were wonderful even without any sun.

At Port Castle Bay I thought the path remained high and so we wasted some time and a lot of effort trying to find a path along the cliff top. In the end we gave up and followed the steep path onto the beach where a sign warns that St Ninian’s Cave is closed due to a rock fall and was awaiting assessment.

The next section of the walk was a walk on the wild side since there is no core path from here on. There certainly did not seem to be a way along the beach because the tide was in. There was no evidence of any path up the cliff that we could see.

We started up the track from the beach but finding no paths off returned to the beach and asked a lady dog walker for advice. She was local and quite definite that there was no way through along the beach but advised going back up the track and little further there was a track on the left which passed near to Physgill House. From there we should continue along the farm track to a derelict farm called Claymoddie where we should turn left along a track back to the coast where we could walk through to St Medan “either high or low”. With such excellent directions it was clearly the thing to do though it added 1 ½ miles to our route. We followed her directions and apart from the corner of a field where the oilseed rape was chest high and wet with the rain, it was quite easy. We couldn’t see an obvious “high” route so descended from the cliff to the beach at Port Counan via a broad zig-zag path but cut off the final corner by crossing a field then scaling a wall to arrive on the foreshore.

Behind the beach itself was a quad bike track through a field which we followed. It continued through a gate and further along the back of the beach. Then the path started to be rather overgrown but Jill was still able to pick out a track and follow it. In the end it was simply too difficult to follow. I think the slight damage to the vegetation was caused by a deer rather than human activity. The vegetation increased in height and density and eventually it was chest high making it impossible to see where we were placing our feet on the uneven ground which had wet channels running across it.

Jill wasn’t feeling very good and said she needed to sit for a few minutes so we forged our way towards the shingle to find somewhere for a break. We tried upending one of the many plastic fish boxes to sit on but the turf we pulled it from contained an ants’ nest so we abandoned that idea and perched on the end of the low stone wall that separated the vegetation from the foreshore.

We were making desperately slow progress so decided we would try to walk along the shingle which was not especially easy-going at first but at least we could see the obstacles. On the plus side the clouds had largely blown away and the sun was shining.

Once on the shingle bank at the top of the beach it was a lot easier though the shore line is littered with debris washed up including lots of fish crates. Even so there were some flowers.

We had lost a lot of time getting across this difficult section not to mention the unplanned diversion. There was a possible escape route up the cliff at Carleton but this would require a long in-land diversion to reach a road.

We continued along the beach and started to make good progress. When we came to a little beach lochan called Lochanscadden there was a well-used farm track up from the beach to the cliff. It was not marked on the map but I could see on the map a farm called Cairndoon with a track to the road of only half a mile or so and I felt sure we could make it cross-country even if the track did not lead to it.

As it turned out the track we followed joined the track to the Homestead. Where that track continued through a gate and away from the coast, we “eyed” cliff top and decided that it was probably walkable. There was a path of sorts though this was probably really only a sheep trod. It was a pleasant walk and we even got a sighting of a doe with her kids. (Roe deer have kids not fawns.)

There were a couple walls to negotiate but nothing to deter a competent walker. It was pleasant walking and we got good views to the beach below and that confirmed for us that at high tide it is not possible to walk the beach.

We could see St Medan golf course but I did not try to get down to it, though it may have been possible to do so, to walk along the road. We stayed high and and went through a field gate into a field with a “sculptured rock” and emerged in the corner by the Gavin Maxwell memorial which involved negotiating a stone wall with yet more barbed wire but were not the first people to do so. Gavin Maxwell was brought up in the area.

We calculated we had just enough time for a ten minute stop at the bench by the memorial to have a swift coffee and shortbread at 14.15. There was no time for lunch; we wanted to get a bus at 15:50 latest to get back to Isle of Whithorn. If we missed that we would have another two hours to wait for the next bus and we doubted if any taxi would come out this far especially at the school-ending time of the afternoon.

We had a little over three miles to go and just over an hour in which to do it. Most of the remaining route to Port William was on tarmac and so we made it in plenty of time. Indeed we had time for an ice-cream but it had been a much tougher and longer walk than I expected and certainly nothing “like a rest day” as I had suggested to Jill.

Oddly two companies run buses on the 415 route and one arrives at 15:35 and the other one just 15 minutes later. It seems an odd arrangement. We got the earlier bus and were the only passengers. Having paid for tickets to the Isle of Whitehorn, we rang the bell at the stop and driver said “You don’t want this stop, this is Garlieston”. We pointed out that this was the Isle Whithorn and he recognised his mistake. Not very reassuring for a bus driver who must have been day-dreaming quite seriously.

Since it was such a nice day we took a stroll around the actual “Isle of Whithorn”. It is not a true island but has a narrow isthmus.

It is home to a beacon tower and two memorials to the crew of the Solway Harvester, a fishing boat crewed by local men all of whom perished off the Isle of Man in January 2000 in a storm. There were health and safety issues apparently and very sad that seven local young men were lost.

Wednesday 25th May 2022

This was another day of two parts, the first half was tarmac and the second half was along the sea shore – more or less.

We drove to Wigtown and parked the car in the main street and set off.  The first half of the walk as far as Innerwell Port, about seven or eight miles, was nearly all on tarmac. Sadly, for most of that part we could hardly even see the estuary. Out of Wigtown we crossed Bladnoch Bridge, walked around the old airfield and then had a short section of path to reach Drumroamin. Then is was tarmac to Innerwell Port.

Once at Innerwell Port the path followed along the coast through some very pleasant woodland. The woodland was quite dense with a number fallen trees and so we still could not see very much of the estuary.

As we approached Garlieston we actually got to the sea. Garlieston is a very pleasant village, really not much more than a ribbon along the bay. There is a beautifully kept bowling green right on the edge of the shore. More importantly for us there is the Harbour Inn and we were more than ready for a stop for lunch. We did have provisions with us but it was threatening to rain and so we did not hesitate to opt for the pub. The service was friendly and prompt and the food was good which was just what we wanted.

After lunch we followed around the bay and onto a good path though at one point the “caged stones” sea defence had been torn away by the action of the sea.

Shortly we came to Cruggleton Bay which is similar to Garlieston Bay but without any buildings. There are the remains of a relatively modern tower near to Cruggleton Hall and on the headland beyond the bay are the remains of Cruggleton Castle which appears to be mainly an arch which stands out against the skyline.

From the tower the path was mainly along field margins. This was either easy walking where the grass had been cut for silage and removed, or very difficult where the long grass made walking very tiring. I do love choreographed movement of the grass collector and the grass wagons as they collect the grass for silage.

After a bit we came to section where the path was largely behind an electric fence. This was not a particular problem though it meant we were restricted to the overgrown field margin. At one point we found that we were walking a field with the rich grass on the other side of the electric fence. On our side rough pasture sloped down to the rocky shore. More to our concern were three large bulls on our side.  We reassured each other and walked steadily past the first one, a black bull who eyed us as we went. The next bull was a brown (?Hereford) bull who watched us steadily as we went. The third bull was bigger and probably an Ayrshire but he had his rump towards us and we did not wish to startle him. We passed the third bull and breathed a sigh of relief only to see a fourth black bull lying right on the path. We were reluctant to get on the downhill side of the bull. He noticed us and slowly got to his feet and moved in our direction. This was enough for us, so Jill went over the electric fence whilst I went under it. We then gave the bull a very wide berth struggling through the field of long grass. The bull made no effort to follow us but we wondered whether an electric fence was really going to contain a bull if it made up its mind to pursue.

At last we came to the road at Portyerrock Bay which was a slight relief  because we had found all the long grass walking rather trying and tiring. It was relief for only about half a mile. Then a sign pointed to the beach for the core path around to Isle of Whithorn. The path was very poorly defined but we picked our way along the shore.

There is a big hunk of concrete sitting in the bay and on the shore there are still some concrete rectangles which probably supported Nissen huts and other buildings which were used when the Mulberry Harbours were being designed. A floating roadway was tested at Cairnhead (this location). At one point the path seemed to disappear completely but Jill eventually found a way through the trees and we came to a proper path. Fortunately the last two miles were just a bit undulating but all the fields had been cut.

We reached the hotel about 5.30 and after a quick shower and change into “civies”, Jill caught the 18:10 bus back to Wigtown to get the car leaving me to get on with the blog – though she noticed that I didn’t seem to have written very much when she got back nearly an hour and a half later.

Monday 24th May 2022

While yesterday was a day of two halves, today was a day of uniformity – tarmac uniformity.

We departed from our B&B in Gatehouse of Fleet and drove to Carsluith and left the car outside the village hall. We walked through the village, such as it is. It is not much more than string of houses along the old road. There is a smokehouse and bistro where the old road joins the A75 but that was of no interest to us at 08.45. We followed the A75  but at least we were on a cycle path which probably gives a false sense of security because we were still quite close to the traffic.

Creetown is another village that has now been bypassed by the A75 but oddly the village is not on the river. We walked through the village which was very quiet at 9.00 but is probably just as quiet at any time of day. Leaving Creetown there is a cycle path along the old railway line. Any hopes that this might be a little softer on the feet was soon dashed as it was soon apparent it was tarmac all the way.  At Graddoch Bridge, the cycle path ends but a minor road continues to Stronord where there is a schools activity centre. The map shows an old military road from here to Challochcroft which, being uncoloured on the map, I hoped might be just a track but it too was tarmac. It is possible to walk on paths in the woods at the side.

A mile before Newton Stewart our path took us back to the A75 but the cycle path skirts round to the “B” road into Newton Stewart. We decided to go into the town rather than take the slightly shorter route along the A75. Apart from alleviating the boredom of the walk, there were a couple of possible venues for finding a better lunch than perching on a bench to our cheese and biscuits, and Jill wanted to check out a butcher she had found online that sold Galloway beef in case it was worth calling in on our way home next week – but it seemed much like any other butcher.

So we had an early lunch at the Belted Galloway Visitor Centre. We met a very friendly “couple” who were in fact just neighbours and we chatted about the local area, the whole country and even touched on Cyprus and Australia where the man had family. We were amused to be told that the man, whose wife had died, was about to visit his “girlfriend”, a widow whom he had first gone out with 68 years ago. He wore his years well.

We also discovered that, in addition to the Belted Galloways with which we are familiar, there are also Black Galloways (which Jill knew) and White Galloways, but did not ask about the progeny of crossing a Black Galloway with a White Galloway (I think the answer is not a Beltie).

Leaving Newton Stewart, there is a cycle way running parallel to the A710 until the cycle route 73 turns on to a minor road that, after six miles, leads into Wigtown. There is no path closer to the River Cree and so we just knuckled down and got on with walking. The land was too flat to see much of the river though we could see over the estuary to traffic on the A75 and to Creetown.

Not a lot of interest happened. Indeed the highlight of the walk from Newton Stewart to Wigtown was a woman driving a trotting cart quite gently but as she passed a field of three horses, her pony neighed loudly and the three horses galloped across to neigh back, shortly followed by a dog barking to which the pony also responded with a neigh. They are probably all good friends and the process is probably repeated on a daily basis. But it was more interesting than an DPD van making a delivery and a pair of bird watchers going in the opposite direction.

Having been on tarmac the whole way and having little else to divert us, we would get to Wigtown by 15:30 meaning an hour and a half’s wait for a bus and then a bus change in Newton Stewart to get back to Carsluith. I tried ringing for a taxi and was delighted that Mary’s Taxi could pick us up soon after we arrived.

Wigtown is the “Book Town of Scotland” having many independent bookshops and none of the chain bookshops. Its former status is preserved in the splendid Wigtown County Buildings amongst others.

We were back at the car by 16:00. and on our way to The Steam Packet Inn at Whithorn where we will be for the next three nights. It is a super location and we have views over the harbour. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Monday 23rd May 2022

Today really was  day of two contrasting parts. The first was really quite tough but with good views and the second was dangerous walking along the A75.

We caught the bus from Gatehouse of Fleet and asked the bus driver to drop us at the car park at Brighouse Bay. We then set off on the path through the car park to the shore. The path was easy enough but when we came to the slipway we followed a path on the left close to the shore. As it turns out we should have turned up to the right for a few yards to a better path.

The path we followed was definitely present and wound along the shore but became more and more difficult to find and follow. Eventually we decided to scramble through the trees until we found a better path, which we did after only fifty yards or so. Once we were on the proper path our speed picked up which was fortunate because we had over nineteen miles to do.

Once out of the woods we were on a nice, grassy path for a while but all to soon it turned onto the beach. Here the path was difficult to make out but we managed to follow snippets of path enough to know we were still following the right line.

After a short while we lost the path, I suspect all walkers have made their own line and no consistent path has been scored in the undergrowth. Being May, the grasses and all the other vegetation had grown up making the path difficult to find and follow and it was also very wet.

There were lots of birds of many different species and some deer.

At one point we found ourselves on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence. Once again our piece of pipe insulation came into play.

Eventually Kirkandrews came into view. We waded across a large field of very long grass to enter the village.

It is only a very small village but it has the remains of a church and a graveyard which contains some war graves and so is well maintained. We sat on a memorial bench there and had our coffee. When we moved off, I thought we would need to head up to the road bridge over the burn but I was pleased to see a path and a wooden footbridge which crossed the burn. The next section to Point of the Bar was a bit confusing and we struggled along the rocky foreshore until we came to a formal path.

We passed a slightly pretentious ruin associated with the disused slipway, Knockbrex Boat House.  There were interesting navigations pillars indicating the channel through to the derelict quay.

From here on the route was a lot easier. It followed to Carrick Shore which is an estate of upmarket holiday chalets. They looked quite nice which is praise indeed from me. We then had a half mile of tarmac to bring us to Sandgreen, a slightly less attractive holiday park.

Looking across the bay it looked as if one might be able to walk across – but of course I did not entertain that thought for long. We headed up a track leading to a deer park and, on the left, Cally Mains Wood. Here, I hoped we could get through the woods to an embankment running up the side of the Fleet estuary to the A75 road bridge over the river.

We found the turning off the track which, though a bit overgrown, was passable. Just before it came to a gate into a field, there was a large tree uprooted by a storm and so we sat on it for our lunch. We went through the gate and crossed the field and then scaled an old, rusty gate that brought us to the foreshore. We tried the embankment but at this point it was too overgrown to be walkable. We stuck to the tidal margin on the foreshore until we had to scale the bank to get round an outflow. Then we could walk the field margin because it had recently been cut for silage.

At the A75 bridge there was no easy way onto the bridge from the path so we crossed the barbed wire fence (pipe insulation again in use) and walked up the bridge embankment with Cardoness Castle ahead of us but, as with so many Scottish historical properties, it was surrounded by Heras fencing.

And thus began the second half of the walk. We now had tarmac all the way to Newton Stewart and several miles would be on the A75. We had a three or four mile walk to a turn off to Laggan where we could take a minor road which runs roughly parallel with the A75 trunk road. The latter takes traffic to and from the Northern Ireland ferries at Cairnryan.

I knew that there was a tea room in a layby at Skyreburn and as we approached we could see that it was open and so we went for a swift tea and cake stop.

For the most part we walked on the south side of  the road because the  verge was slightly wider and there are more lay-bys.  The other benefit of walking with our backs to the traffic is the HGV’s on the east-bound carriageway have mainly come from the ferry terminal at Stranraer and so they come in packs of ten to twelve as they came off the ferry. A string of large articulated lorries one after another is very intimidating.

Sunday 22nd May 2022

Today’s walk was intentionally short because we had a longish drive to start off with. We drove to Brighouse Bay and met with Allan’s Taxi and were taken back to Kirkcudbright to resume our walk. In the fifteen minutes or so taxi ride the clouds began to weep and so the first thing we had to do was get waterproofs on.

The walk out of Kirkcudbright was along wide, pavemented roads but once on the B727 the pavements ended. It is not a particularly busy road but this morning a local farm was busy cutting silage and so we had a steady stream of tractors and grass trailers which bounced alarmingly as they passed. The road is hard by the coast and so we could see across to St Mary’s Isle which we walked around on Day 191.

At Nun Mill there is parking and camping area and so we made use of the benches and sat, overlooking Goat Well Bay, to have coffee from our flasks and remove our waterproofs. From here, we left the road and followed a core path to Senwick Church. It is a delightful path that weaves between the trees of the woodland with tempting glimpses across Kirkcudbright Bay. There were still some bluebells and lots of wild garlic; the only blot on the landscape was where some forestry work had despoiled the scene.

The Sennick graveyard has outlived Senwick Church but is rather overgrown. We then had a mile or two of agricultural land to bring us to Ross Bay. Ross Bay is little-frequented though there is a row of four holiday lets at the head of the bay. I had hoped to find a bench near the cottages but there was nothing for the public. We carried on round the side of the bay and, just before the cottages at Blackstones, someone had tied a cheap plastic bench to a post. It was all we needed, it was sheltered and had a view over the bay and so we stopped for lunch.

At Blackstones a core path leads across the headland of Meikle Ross where the island  Little Ross  (which is really the same name as Meikle Ross) comes into view. Unfortunately in the low cloud the top of the lighthouse was invisible.

We passed through a field of young calves with their mums. Fortunately they were not very interested in us.

We then descended to Fauldbog Bay; we were only about 100 yards from the road head at Ross Bay where we had been 90 minutes before. The rain started again so it was on with the waterproofs before heading for the Mull of Ross, where we safely negotiated a field of even younger calves with their mothers.

The next mile and a half was a real pleasure of undulating cliff walking over rocky outcrops with a real sense of wilderness. All too soon we came to the road at Brighouse Bay where we had left the car. We did walk down to the road end for completeness because that is where the bus should drop us tomorrow morning.

At the entrance to the holiday park there is a Gloster Meteor plane. How and why it is there is not clear but the Gloster Meteor was the first and only allied jet aircraft to see service in WWII.