Wigtownshire Ramblers. Stranraer to Portpatrick. November 2012

Severe mud on the SUW.

Passing Dunskey Glen

Today's group.

On a nice dry warm bus at the end.

Yesterday I joined my mother group at Stranraer for a 10 mile walk to Portpatrick. I was asked if I would be good enough to write the report for the local newspaper so I will add this to the blog without cheating this week as I wrote it myself so apologies for the grammar and the odd spelling mistake as my rambling editor (Lofty) as not had a chance to correct it yet.

Wigtownshire Ramblers walk report for Saturday November 17^th 2012

 

On Saturday November 17^th Wigtownshire ramblers met at Stranraer to walk 10 miles to the lovely village of Portpatrick on the Southern  Upland Way.(SUW) 15 members including two visitors, one from New Zealand and the other from the U.S.A.  left from the Breastworks car park on a clear cold sunny morning to climb up past the cemetery to join the SUW at Gallowhill Farm where our leader showed us two Belgian Beef Cattle grazing in the field which are a rare breed to this area.On reaching Knockquhassen reservoir two latecomers joined us swelling our numbers to 17 today. Passing the water a gaggle of pink footed geese were feeding until they heard us and  took off with a very fine display of their ability to fly without crashing into each other. This section of the SUW to the cairn on Broad Moor is extremely muddy which made it very challenging finding a way through the bogs and peat. Everyone was disappointed that the authorities have allowed the path to deteriorate into this condition ,some duckboards could be put down to help walkers pass through without resorting to wading in the standing water. The leader is going to get in touch with the group’s paths officer and report the condition of the SUW at this point and hopefully something can be done to save this valuable asset that brings thousands of visitors to the area every year. Once we reached the hard road Knock and Maze the leader pointed out a fine example of a standing stone before we arrived a Killantringan Lighthouse for a lunch stop sitting on a hill overlooking the sea with it’s fine views over the channel to Northern Ireland.The next part of the SUW is a cliff walk on excellent paths past Dunskey Glen  and the old coastguard station before a steep flight of steps took us down the village of Portpatrick where the local bus took us all back to Stranraer for  a well  earned cup of coffee with fresh scones in the warm comfort of Stir It a well known  local tearoom.Our leaders were thanked for their efforts today as the appalling ground conditions experienced by the group  on the SUW had made the walk a great deal more challenging than had been expected.

Next Saturday November 24th the walk is  10 miles on paths around Glentrool in the Galloway Forest. Please meet at Breastworks Car park at 9.00AM or Riverside ,Newton Stewart for car sharing at 9.30AM or alternatively if going direct to the walk start at Caldons please contact the leader on 01776840636

 

PS Thanks to Scoop for the photos I ran out of battery power (so what's new.)