Loch Doon Road Show path on map
Start location: A712, 8km west of New Galloway ( NX 567 771 )
End location: Dalmellington ( NS 481 056 )
Geographical area: Arran and Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway
Path type: Civil Road
Path distance: 42km
Accessibility info: Suitable for pedestrians
Route Description
From the A712, 8km west of New Galloway, take a forest road going northwest to join the Southern Upland Way (SUW), 1km beyond Upper Craigenbay. Go south on the SUW for 1km to Clatteringshaws Loch, then 4km west to the point where it crosses the Black Water of Dee at NX495794. Here do not cross the river, but instead leave the SUW to go northwest then north along a forest track to the junction at NX492803, turn west and follow the track west and north to reach Backhill of Bush.
Continue north along the forestry road for circa 6.5km, snaking round Little Craigtarson, to reach the end of the forestry road at Riders Rig. A stony quad bike track branches off to the left downhill to meet the Kirriereoch Burn and tree line (NX485888). Cross the burn and head north along the treeline on a faint grassy track to a firebreak / stream / felled plantation at NX487897. Turn left (west) to follow the firebreak and stream for 600m to reach a forestry track. Turn left (southwest) onto a track for Loch Doon which turns right (north) at NX478898. At the track junction (NX478902) just before the Sheil Burn, take the right (north) turn. Continue on this track to the junction (NX481924) at the south end of Loch Doon. To continue northwards, cross the Gala Lane, pass Starr and cross the Carrick Lane. Turn northeast along the west side of Loch Doon to join the public road at Craigmalloch. Follow it, and 800m beyond the north end of the loch, go left at Gaw Glen Burn to Bellsbank and Dalmellington.
Heritage Information
This is an interesting track, although due to the effects of both the raising of the level of Loch Doon and the heavy forestry you are rarely walking along the historic line of the route. Another difficulty with finding the line of the old route is that it isn't depicted very clearly in old maps.
In Ordnance Survey's 1st edition 6 inch to the mile maps a route is shown from Dalmellington to Starr and then nothing till Clatteringshaws Loch, but 30 years earlier in 1831 Ainslie mapped a clear road going further south to MacWhirther Lodge. There are sites of settlement along the route recorded from Pont's surveys of the 1590s onwards suggesting that people were travelling this route but that it wasn't significant enough to be mapped by Pont or Roy and that it had largely fallen out of use by the time Ordnance Survey undertook their detailed surveys in the mid 19th century.
There are sites of interest en route such as Donald's Isle, which is now submerged in Loch Doon but was excavated in the 1930s prior to the water level being raised and found to be a medieval settlement. Castle Island too was almost entirely submerged by the rising waters, but most of Loch Doon Castle was carefully dismantled and relocated to its present lochside site in 1935. Well hidden among the trees, there is a Kirk Stone at NX486918 that is thought to have been used as a preaching place during the religious upheavals of the 17th century.
