The hillside campsite offers a sweeping morning view across the Kirkcudbright rooftops as the sun struggles to break through the clouds. There are rabbits everywhere, clearly comfortable with campers.
I’m lucky to be here. My Sunday journey from home was fraught with train cancellations, leaving me a nine mile walk from Castle Douglas in the dark, but thankfully a bus ran beyond the scheduled timetable. I almost hugged the driver when she told me the bus was running through to Kirkcudbright. A sign of the disruption to come with the national rail strikes.
The town is quiet as I leave, crossing the River Dee. There are only a few fisherman at work.
A quiet road shadows the river. A roe deer crashes out of the bushes, runs across the road in front of me, leaps a hedge and bounds away across the field.
The start of the core path from Millhall is hard to find, but it’s a very pretty trail, running through woodland carpeted with wild garlic.
Senwick Church graveyard is fine to explore in daylight. This was the resting place of a fellow coastal walker; not his last! A braver man than me to camp in a graveyard: The Perimeter.
Rounding Meikle Ross, an uprooted signpost lies in the long grass, making it difficult to find the right way, as the path has vanished. I climb over a locked gate and hug the cliff edge, giving me a fine view of Little Ross lighthouse, which hides a grisly secret — in 1960 one of the two relief lighthouse keepers shot the other in the head as he slept.
This is no headland for those fearful of cows. I keep a wary eye on the bulls and manoeuvre round the herds of cows with calves. The core path is a dead loss. My best bet is to simply look for gates in the distance.
Brighouse Bay is wild and pretty.
The walk from the bay is wonderful. Woodland gives way to towering cliffs; cormorants are perched on the jagged rocks below.
The path vanishes into the rocky shore at Ringdoo Bay, with sea pinks enticing me on.
Eventually I find the path again, climbing back up to enjoy dramatic views.
I head in inland at Kirkandrews to view several buildings constructed in a rather unique style by James Brown of Knockbrex. They remind me of the Playmobil castles that my children played with when they were young. The first is a tiny kirk (church), built in 1906.
The garish Corseyard Dairy, known locally as the “Coo Palace”, is next. I’m not a fan of this one, so carry on to Knockbrex Castle, also built in 1906, rather bizarrely to house Brown’s cars.
There are lovely views from Carrick across Fleet Bay, but then I have a long trek round the water.
The notorious A75 arrives, busy with lorries hurtling to and from the ports near Stranraer. It’s a hard slog for several miles, with few places to relax, one being near pretty Skyreburn Bridge.
Unfortunately, Auchenlarie holiday camp has the tent area backing onto the A75, with only a row of trees to separate us; a really grotty spot. I’m starting to dislike that road, but fall asleep easily despite the noise from passing lorries, as I’m exhausted after a long day. There were limited options to pitch any earlier. On the plus side, I now have a couple of relatively gentle days to follow.
Walk distance: 26 miles.
Total distance: 1,767 miles.
I’m not a fan of the renovated Coo Palace either, but I see what you mean about the resemblance between the castle and playmobil!
What a pity there isn’t a dedicated coastal path. It would make such a difference and be a huge benefit to walkers and the area.
I agree. The A75 was one of the most dangerous roads I have walked along so far. Thankfully I managed to work around it for the following day. There are inland alternative routes, but there is somewhere I was particularly keen to visit the next day.
I don’t even like driving on the A75!
I hate the drive too; it takes forever to get to Stranraer! The coastline is (not surprisingly) very similar to that ‘nearby’ in Co Down.
Hi Peter. I think that was the closest I have been to Ireland! It is on my ever-growing list. 🙂