Cameron’s Country
Cameron brings you the best of the Galloway coast
Cameron McNeish reports on gorgeous Galloway
WHILE the gnarly, rugged hills of Galloway will always be my prime reason for visiting Scotland’s south-west, it would be wrong to dismiss or forget the other delights of the area.
History, romance, seascapes, wildlife and great coastal walks are all intertwined in a region of Scotland that many curiously disregard or are simply unaware of.
That, however, might change in years to come. A marketing initiative motivated by the success of the North Coast 500 route has been set up to encourage more visitors and I suspect those who travel along the South West Coastal 300 will be pleasantly surprised.
Castles, ruined abbeys, pretty villages and more ancient artefacts that you can shake a stick at are linked by a road system that is both relatively quiet and scenic. I’ve never seen such magnificently luxurious hedgerows anywhere else in Scotland.
Compared with the mad convoys of coaches, motorhomes and motorbikes on the North Coast 500 route, a journey through Dumfries and Galloway makes you appreciate the benefits of the “slow roads” approach.
The SWC300 is a circular 300-mile (482km) route that winds south Dumfries, skirting the coast round to South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire, through the magnificent Mennock Pass and the highest villages in the country, Wanlockhead and Leadhills.
Armed with our Historic Scotland membership cards, Gina and I looked forward to a week of visiting castles, ancient abbeys and grand churches but we always find it hard, if not impossible, to ignore the call of the hills.
We had settled in for a couple of nights at a wonderful spot near Caerlaverock where the estate has provided a place for campervans. Within minutes we were exploring the wooded shores of the Solway Firth, where the estuary of the River Nith spreads out into extensive sandbanks and merse, a hunting ground for marsh harriers.
We spent an afternoon exploring the narrow corridors and towers of Caerlaverock Castle, a gaunt edifice that was put under siege in 1300 by Edward I of England and his army of 30,000. Imagine the king’s embarrassment when his great army had been held at bay for three days by a mere 60-strong garrison.
Birding and castle explorations filled our time but we were aware of the dim outline that dominated the far shores of the Nith Estuary above the Carse Sands. It’s called Criffel – the hill of the raven.
We drove to Dumfries to get across the river and then followed the lovely hedgerow-lined A710 to New Abbey,
“More ancient artefacts than you can shake a stick at”
with its old watermill and Sweetheart Abbey ruins. This Cistercian building, one of three in the Galloway area, was founded by John Balliol’s wife Devorgilla in 1273.
Passionately devoted to her husband she was brokenhearted when he died in 1269 and had his body embalmed and his heart placed in a small, silver ivory casket, which she carried with her everywhere.
When she died in 1290, the casket and her remains were buried together in the church she had founded. The monks of the time, touched by her devotion, took the name Dulce Cor, or Sweetheart, for the abbey.
A car park at Ardwall Mains farm gives access to the eastern slopes of Criffel. A cap of cloud had settled on the summit of the hill and it felt dank and still. A curiously hushed atmosphere in the trees acted as a kind of echo chamber for the blackbird that provided our musical accompaniment as we trudged up the muddy path.
Criffel is not a high hill but seems bigger than its 569 metres (1866ft). Dominating the landscapes south of Dumfries, the whalebacked hill rises above the Solway and the Nith estuary so adding to its impression of height. Its broad bulk is an obvious landmark when viewed from the tops of the Lakeland Fells in the south.
For much of the way through the forest we followed the tumultuous course of the Craigrockall Burn – a testament to the amount of rain that had fallen and, unfortunately, the footpath had suffered the same fate.
The slopes of Criffel rose on the left and those of the subsidiary top of Knockendoch on the right as we left the foaming burn and followed the waterlogged path to the summit cairn and trig pillar, still swathed in cloud. Unusually the cairn is named – Douglas’s Cairn – and is believed to date from the Bronze Age.
The ascent of Criffel is popular among people of Dumfries, or Doonhamers, and it provides a fairly stiff afternoon’s walk with the reward of extensive views on a good day. The Lowther, Moffat and Ettrick hills are visible to the east and across the Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve and the Solway Firth rise the rounded shapes of the Lake District fells. Snaefell, the highest hill on the Isle of Man, can just be spotted in the far distance.
From the summit we retraced our steps to the high bealach and climbed Knockendoch, the second summit of Criffel. Below us, beyond the skirts of the forest, lay the ruffled waters of Loch Kindar. The loch contains a
crannog, a man-made island that once held a roundhouse, believed to date from the first century – yet another reminder of the historical richness of this area called Novantae and Selgovae by the Romans.
From Knockendoch we slithered down wet, grassy slopes to where the Craigrockall Burn disappears into the forest. By the time we reached my car at Ardwall Farm, the water was oozing from our boots.
We stopped overnight in the delightful village of Rockcliffe. A quiet offshoot of the A710 carries you down to the rocky foreshore of the village and a couple of miles north a quiet road runs from the A710 to Kippford. Footpaths link the villages and you can choose between a coastal walk or a higher route through the forest.
We chose to take the high route through the forest and enjoy the views before descending to Kippford for a welcome pint of beer in the hotel. We then returned to Rockcliffe along the delightfully bird-loud coastal path, totally and utterly captivated by the place.
By the time we reached this beautiful stretch of the Dumfries and Galloway coast we had visited so many ruins and ancient abbeys that we were almost castled-out. Nevertheless, I was still on something of a pilgrimage.
We don’t know a great deal about Bishop Nynia, or St Ninian, one of the first monks to bring Christianity to the Picts of southern Scotland. Ninian apparently arrived in Scotland in the fifth century and established the Candida Casa, his distinctive shining church.
For centuries pilgrims who would sail to the Isle of Whithorn in the south and then make their way on foot to Whithorn itself. Today you can visit St Ninian’s Chapel, close to the bay where most of the pilgrims landed.
Legend suggests that, from time to time, Ninian would take himself off to a cave just west of Whithorn, a retreat that has since attracted pilgrims from all over the world.
I was keen to show Gina this cave via an old pilgrim’s route, a lovely walk that takes you through Physgill Glen. The starting point is a car park at Kidsdale – south of Whithorn, just off the A747.
The Physgill woods were a delight, filled with the aroma of wild garlic, and the track soon runs alongside a bubbling burn that runs out onto the beach at Port Castle Bay. A signpost points to the right and the cave comes into sight, with a helpful information plaque.
We completed our journey along the Galloway coast by re-visiting the first section of the Southern Upland Way, which runs from the lovely little village of Portpatrick on the west side of the Rhinns of Galloway up to the lighthouse at Killantringan.
The lighthouse itself, and the distant views of Northern Ireland are merely bonuses to the rough, twisting path below your feet, paths that may well have felt the tread of pilgrim’s sandals, almost from time immemorial.