Southern Upland Way: Glenwhan Moor

Monday 22nd May 2023

After two nights in Stranraer at the Aird Donald Caravan Park, I broke camp and caught a bus to Castle Kennedy which was where I had reached on the Southern Upland Way the day before. Now I was beginning a long stretch on the trail with little sign of habitation and no shops for fifty miles, so with my rucksack heavily laden I set off from Castle Kennedy along the lane that leads to the gardens. I didn’t have time to look around them but I still had a pleasurable walk along the drive which was lined with bluebells, wild garlic and many other delightful woodland flowers while rhododendron decorated the scene beyond and made me reluctant to leave. All too soon I emerged onto a minor road and after a short time I took a track that slowly climbed and afforded me with views over gorse bushes back towards the Rhins of Galloway that I had crossed the day before. It was a lovely sunny day with a brisk wind that I felt fortunate to be enjoying after a cold, wet spring that had severely affected my holiday at Easter. After another short spell along a road I turned off onto an access track that led me into Glenwhan Moor conifer plantation, but the Southern Upland Way fortunately just skirts the edge between the outer wall and the conifers, so I was able to have an enjoyable walk, though my mind was on something else. Hidden along the whole length of the trail are thirteen sculptured kists and on my first day I had found the minted coin hidden inside the first kist on Broad Moor, and I knew that the second kist was on Glenwhan Moor so I kept my eyes peeled for anything unnatural that might possibly contain hidden treasure.

Even though I didn’t find anything for a long time I still had a lovely walk on a dry path in the sunshine with the hills of Galloway in the distance that promised future delights while colourful wild flowers, notably bugle, lay at my feet. If more of the Southern Upland Way was like this path then I would be very happy, but I was sure it would not. Eventually I came across the kist, marked as usual beforehand by the word “ultreia” on the preceding trail post, and it was hard to miss as it was clearly labelled beside a clootie tree where strips of cloth or rag are tied for some Celtic custom. I ignored all this and picked out a coin before continuing along the path into the conifer plantation, soon descending under dark conifers with wood sorrel decorating the floor to cross the Craig Burn. Beyond the burn the deciduous woodland floor was covered in bluebells and stitchworts that followed me beside the path through Airyolland Wood until I crossed the railway line and descended to the Water of Luce, my first big river on the trail. After a climb to a road I took to an arrow straight track that led me across Kilhern Moor while dozens of wind turbines could be seen across the hills ahead of me.

At one point I came across an adder that was basking in the sunshine on the path, so I carefully went around it before continuing along the trail. At Kilhern, the moorland scenery was replaced by farmland and I turned into the cold wind to follow a track to a road where I turned right up the valley beside the Cross Water of Luce slowly climbing towards the wind turbines. Eventually I surpassed the previous highest point on the trail so far, on Broad Moor, and continued to climb while my rucksack began to feel heavy on my back despite having felt surprisingly light when I first put it on my back at the beginning of the day as the monotonous climb and sunshine drained me of energy. Soon after the gradient finally eased I entered a vast conifer plantation that was littered with tall wind turbines and after an initial boggy stretch the path improved and I reached a forestry track that provided me with easy walking to take me to the Beehive Bothy at Laggangarn. This would have an awesome place to spend the night, but it was only three o’clock and I felt it was far too early to stop. If the weather was bad or I was not feeling great, then I would have stopped at this time, but neither of those were the case so I pushed on past some standing stones and down to the Tarf Water.

From there I started to climb again along a path that was enlivened by wood sorrel, bluebells, bugle and buttercups, which encouraged me to keep going until I reached a cairn at Craig-dhu where the hills of Galloway, including the highest point, Merrick, could be seen above the trees. Even though I would not be climbing those hills on this holiday it was still great to see them and they almost made me ignore the extensive conifer plantation and wind farm that lay in the way. More climbing through the conifers and past wind turbines brought me to my new highest point on the trail so far at the top of Craigaire Fell, 320 metres above sea level, where a trig point marked the summit and I had extensive views in all directions. The path beyond led me steeply down the hill onto a forestry track and alongside the edge of a moor that tops on Craigmoddie Fell where I had considered camping but it was still rather early and I didn’t want to stop so I kept going onto a road that provided me with frustratingly no opportunities to camp. By five o’clock I finally wanted to stop but there was nowhere to camp. Eventually, with the time approaching six o’clock, I reached Waterside holiday cottage where a sign indicated that I could refill my water bottle, which I eagerly took advantage of, and, now desperate to stop, I soon found somewhere to put up my tent, beside some felled conifers, despite the ground being rather tussoky.

This was my first proper day on the Southern Upland Way, now carrying all my gear, and I saw a lot of variation. There were some great sections of the trail where I saw some fabulous wild flowers like at Castle Kennedy Gardens and along the excellent footpath beside Glenwhan Moor or through the bluebells in Airyolland Wood, but other sections saw prolonged road walking which was not fun. I had loved the idea of not knowing where I was going to camp on this trail and having the freedom to just put up my tent wherever I reached at the end of the day, but in practice it is not as easy as that, although in the end the proximity of the outside watertap at Waterside was a great benefit to where I eventually stopped.