SCOTLAND
15. DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY, MULL OF GALLOWAY
Distance: 3.3 miles/5.3km | Time: 2 hours | Grade: Easy | Total ascent: 162m
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A rugged and remote finger of land reaches out into the Irish Sea at Scotland’s southernmost point. Known as the Mull of Galloway, it commands a far-reaching outlook encompassing Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and England’s Lake District, views that can be enjoyed on this figure of-eight walk at the peninsula’s tip.
The cliffs here are home to nesting seabirds at this time of year while dolphins can be spotted offshore. End your visit with a climb to the lighthouse’s lantern room (March-October) and then call in at the clifftop café to refuel.
1. START
The gate in front of the café (directly below the car park) provides access to an undulating trail along the unfenced clifftop. Turn right and, using the fence on the right as your guide for 1.1 miles, watch for fulmars, kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills and the occasional puffin nesting on these dramatic greywacke cliffs. Further out to the west, Northern Ireland is visible on a clear day.
2. 1.2 MILES
When you find yourself looking straight ahead into the small bay at West Tarbert, go through the gate on the right and follow the fence on the left to the road. Cross diagonally left, through the wall gap opposite. Walk with an earth bank on your right until it ends in about 65 metres. Drop steeply right to the shore at East Tarbert, follow a track to the old quay and go through the gate between the two buildings.
3. 1.7 MILES
Having crossed the peninsula, open-sea vistas are swapped for views across Luce Bay and into the remote Galloway Hills.
With good visibility, you might even spot the faint blue outline of the Lakeland fells on the eastern horizon as you follow the waymarked Mull of Galloway Trail.
This route runs alongside the fence leading uphill from behind the semi-derelict building at the quay.
4. 2.5 MILES
Further progress east is halted abruptly by a wall.
Go through the gate on the right now and follow the wall uphill to the car park.
Before shedding your walking gear, however, proceed through the gate on the left and join the signposted ‘circular’ trail on the left.
5. 2.7 MILES
For the full tip-of-thepeninsula experience, including a chance to see the churning waters of the Nine Tides tidal race, turn left along the Lagvag Point trail just beyond the RSPB cottage.
Return to the circular trail and continue to follow it clockwise, where you soon reach the lighthouse and then return to the car park.
USEFUL INFO
Starting point
Free car park at tip of Mull of Galloway, DG9 9HP, 22 miles south of Stranraer. No public transport.
Terrain
Mostly grassy clifftop paths, muddy in places; some fields; second loop on partially surfaced, waymarked trail.
Map
OS Explorer 309
Eat/drink
Gallie Craig Coffee House directly below car park. 01776 840 558, galliecraig.co.uk
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