Galloway Forest Park is often described as the Highlands of the Lowlands. But while its rocky slopes, high hills and remote glens share some Highland attributes, it has a character of its own. This is a landscape in which John Buchan set the 39 Steps and remains one that is ripe for adventure. Slightly kinder than the Highlands, its charm lies in the ease with which you can penetrate deeply into the hills and still retain a sense of wilderness. Sparsely populated, the forest park has also been designated as the UK’s only Dark Sky Park. Free from much of the light pollution that afflicts much of the UK, Galloway Forest is the best place to come and admire the night sky – the Milky Way is often clearly visible. Recent upgrading work on paths in the park has had the fortunate side-effect of making the navigating straightforward should a night-time stargazing adventure appeal to you. But the views are impressive, no matter what the time of day. The second half of the walk circumnavigates the loch, which is surrounded on three sides by steep rocky hillsides.
[1] From the Visitor Centre, cross the wooden bridge and turn left uphill past the old toilet block and red squirrel sculpture, following the yellow trail markers. After a short distance you meet with a forestry road. Go straight over and continue on the path ahead. The path bends right through a gap in a stone wall, before coming to a junction with a broad forestry road. Turn left along it uphill. At the top of the hill, follow the forestry road round to the right and downhill, where it bends round to the left, and continue to a dead end where you pick up a gravel path. After a slight rise, the path twists downhill through a stand of tall pines.
There are very good views from here towards the head of the valley and the high summits.
[2] After a surprisingly long and winding downhill, you emerge at the minor road that leads to Glentrool. Cross the road, go left and take the path on your right, signed as the start of the Loch Trool trail. Follow this rough road beyond the car park and over the bridge. Continue around the gate marked ‘No Unauthorised Vehicles’. Here, you swap the yellow trail for the green trail and follow the route that’s also marked as the Southern Upland Way. Veer off to the left and follow an old tarmacked road that enters the Glentrool Oakwoods. When the road forks, veer left and, when the woodland opens up, veer left again. Here, there is plenty of visible sky to look up at as the path crosses a grassy meadow and then a bridge. The path follows a broad unsurfaced road and then splits at a spreading oak, where you go right to follow a broad gravel path that eventually descends to the lochside. Follow the path to the end of the loch.
[3] There’s a short, steep section at the end of the loch before the path descends to a point. Where the Southern Upland Ways leads off to the right, go left and cross the Glenhead burn. Continue to a broad unsurfaced road and turn left. Follow the road through well-established oak woods and over a stone bridge. Climb steeply to Bruce’s Stone and car park, from where the views over the loch are excellent.
(A) The stone commemorates a battle in 1307 in which Robert the Bruce and his makeshift army of 300 ambushed and defeated an English force of 1,500 cavalry. The English were lured into the narrowest part of the glen where they were bombarded by rocks.
[4] From the car park, take the narrow road west, following the north side of the loch (although it is rarely in view). About a mile further on, take the indicated path off to the left to regain the edge of the loch. At the end of the loch, follow the Water of Trool for a short distance to emerge into a car park.
[5] From the car park, go round to the left and through the gate marked ‘No Unuathorised Vehicles’ for the second time. This time follow the yellow markers and go to the right into a gravel area with a large interpretation board at its centre. Continue on the path, which veers left and closely follows the Water of Trool – both out in the open and through attractive native woodland. Continue across the river to the opposite bank and follow the path for the short distance to another bridge over Water of Minnoch. Cross it to return to the start.