Scotland Guide

Galloway Forest Park

Galloway Forest Park ( www.forestry.gov.uk/gallowayforestpark ) has three visitor centres (times vary but are basically April– Oct daily 10.30am–4.30pm): by Clatteringshaws Loch, at Glentrool and at Kirroughtree. Each visitor centre has a tearoom, several waymarked walks and lots of information on activities and events. In addition, both Glentrool and Kirroughtree have mountain bike trails, which form part of southern Scotland's outstanding mountain-biking facilities, known as the 7 Stanes ( www.7stanes.co.uk ). Of the two, Kirroughtree, three miles east of the town 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. 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 tarmacked 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, with a fourteen-mile footpath running right round the loch.