Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Galloway Hills, an environment of glassy lochs, wooded hills and bare, rounded peaks.
Much of this landscape is now incorporated into the
Galloway Forest Park
, Britain's largest
forest park, which stretches all the way from the southern part of Ayrshire right down to
Gatehouse of Fleet, laid out on land owned by the Forestry Commission. Few people live
here, but the park is a major draw for hikers and mountain bikers. Accommodation is
sparse in the park itself: use
Newton Stewart
,
to the southwest, as a base.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
GALLOWAY FOREST PARK AND AROUND
By bus
No buses run along the park's only road (the
Queen's Way/A712), so if you don't have transport you
either need to approach the park from New Galloway to the
east or Newton Stewart to the southwest.
Destinations
From New Galloway: Castle Douglas
(Mon-Sat 6 daily; 30min); Dumfries (Mon-Sat 2 daily;
1hr). From Newton Stewart: Dumfries (Mon-Sat every
1-2 hours, 2 on Sun; 1hr 30min), Stranraer (Mon-Sat
hourly, 4 on Sun; 45min); Wigtown (Mon-Sat hourly, 6 on
Sun; 15min).
INFORMATION
Tourist o
ce
Dashwood Square, Newton Stewart (April-
Aug Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sept-Oct Mon-Sat
11am-3pm;
T
01671 402431,
W
newtonstewart.org).
Galloway Forest Park O
ce
26 Main St, St John's Town of
Dalry (Mon-Thurs 8am-5pm, Fri 8am-4.30pm;
T
01671
402420,
W
www.forestry.gov.uk/gallowayforestpark).
3
Visitor centres
By Clatteringshaws Loch, at Glentrool
and at Kirroughtree (times vary but are generally
March-June & Sept-Oct Thurs-Sun 10.30am-4.30pm,
July-Aug 10.30am-5.30pm). Each has a tearoom,
several waymarked walks and lots of information on
activities and events.
ACCOMMODATION, EATING AND DRINKING
Wild camping is permitted within the Galloway Forest Park but otherwise most accommodation options are limited to in
and around Newton Stewart and New Galloway on the park's western and eastern fringes.
Creebridge House Hotel
Creebridge, Newton Stewart
T
01671 402121,
W
creebridge.co.uk.
The town's most
luxurious hotel is this eighteenth-century former hunting
lodge, with extensive grounds. It's also a welcoming spot
for a pint of local real ale; the chef 's signature dish is the
bitter-sweet barbary duck breast with cranberry jus for
HIKING, BIKING AND STAR
GAZING: GALLOWAY FOREST PARK
Both Glentrool and Kirroughtree have mountain-bike trails, which form part of southern
Scotland's outstanding mountain-biking facilities, known as the
7stanes
(
W
7stanes.co.uk). Of
the two,
Kirroughtree
, three miles east of Newton Stewart, is by far the most varied and fun,
with lots of exciting single-track trails for all abilities and good bike-rental facilities.
Hikers
are better off heading for
Glentrool
, at the western edge of the park, about ten miles
north of Newton Stewart, where a narrow lane twists the five miles over to
Loch
Trool
. On the
north side of the loch the
Bruce Stone
, near the lovely Buchan Waterfall, marks the spot where
Robert the Bruce ambushed an English force in 1307 after routing the main body of the army at
Solway Moss. From here, you can follow the Gariland Burn to Loch Neldricken and Loch Enoch,
with their silver granite sands, and then on to the Devil's Bowling Green, strewn with hundreds of
erratic boulders left by the retreating glaciers. Alternatively, you can head for the Range of the
Awful Hand, whose five peaks include the
Merrick
(2746ft), the highest hill in southern Scotland.
The only surfaced road to cross the park is the desolate twenty-mile stretch of the A712
between Newton Stewart and New Galloway, known as the
Queen's Way
. About seven miles
east of Newton Stewart, at the
Grey Mare's Tail Bridge
, there are various forest trails, all
delving into the pine forests beside the road, crossing gorges, waterfalls and burns. There's also
a
Wild Goat Park
and, a mile or so further up the road, a
Red
Deer Range
. A few more miles
on, you'll come to
Clatteringshaws Loch
, a reservoir surrounded by pine forest, and
connected with the Southern Upland Way on its north side. Heading southeast from
Clatteringshaws is the
Raiders Road
, a ten-mile-long toll road that shadows the River Dee,
with some great waterfalls and pools for swimming in.
The park has been formally designated a “dark sky park”, with designated spots for astronomy
(see
W
www.forestry.gov.uk/darkskygalloway).
