SUMMIT By STARLIGHT
DECEMBER The Merrick Galloway Forest Park
Galloway in Southern Scotland is often missed off the hit-list of many a hillwalker, and that’s a good thing, because it means it’s quiet! It’s a staggeringly beautiful and wild place to go at any time of the year if you enjoy solitude and wide-open spaces. But as well as some magnificent hills, its lack of resident population means it is one of the best places to go stargazing in Britain. It has been designated as one of only four Dark Sky Parks in the world, and the first in the UK. From within the 300 square miles of forest and hills, 7000 stars and planets are visible without a telescope, and it’s one of the only places in the UK where the Milky Way is often clearly visible.
A roll-off-roof observatory is open to the public near Dalmellington, but if the conditions are right, we recommend you embrace the darkness of December and make a night-time ascent of Southern Scotland’s highest summit, Merrick, for a unique experience that will stay with you forever. A good footpath from Glen Trool guides you all the way so long as it’s not under snow, and you’ll find yourself 843m closer to the stars than the rest of the population. While hiking the Merrick on the 3 Loch route from its east is a highly recommended walk in daytime, walking the tourist track at night will heighten your senses and your experience in ways you’d not imagined. Be sure to stop off at Bruce’s Stone before you start for a moonlit view of Loch Trool, then head up through the forest, where you can listen out for owls (there’s four species found in the Galloway Forest Park), and pine marten which are mostly nocturnal. So wrap up warm, tell someone where you’re going, and finish off your year with a crazy night adventure!