The Southern Upland Way: Scotland's Coast to Coast

St John's Town of Dalry to our wild campsite on Manquhill Hill

Thursday 5th April
St John's Town of Dalry to Manquhill Hill


We camp in an empty field just outside St John's Town of Dalry	Across a style and we head North to the hills.

We trekked about half a mile out of town last night in order to find a suitable place to camp. Leaving our tent pitched in an empty field outside St John's Town of Dalry, we head into town to find our next two days worth of provisions. There is a post office, public toilets and a couple of newsagents in Dalry, so we were able to find adequate supplies for our journey across to Sanquhar. The high street is dominated by an interesting fountain.

We return to our rapidly drying tent - got rather wet from condensation last night - with a few goodies such as lamb and mint sausages and some honeymoon cakes. The local fare looks delicious. It seems that most people's accents in these parts appear to be English, probably due to the proximity to England. Though there were a couple of definite Scots accents to be heard in the bar last night. As we empty out the tent, we get pricked several times through the groundsheet - seems that pitching a tent over a thistle is not a good! We comfortably break camp in 14 minutes, and feel if we really tried we could break camp in 10 minutes or less. Something else called laziness is consuming out time in the mornings and causing us to set out later than most. We've really got to work to get a fast transition between waking, getting up and breaking camp. This is the barrier for us starting to walk early in the day. The trail beckons. Between here and Sanquhar we are looking for a kist made by a ceramicist - a 25 mile stretch to be on the lookout. No road walking on this massive section which is definitely a boon, though there may be some short sections of track walking.

We set off into open grazing land - pretty bleak but there is a sunny day to go with it, and the Galloway Hills loom to the west of us. Since Alan's many foot dunkings into various marshes, his socks are very wet and smelly. He ties them to the outside of his rucksack so they can dry and air, though unfortunately the smell carries far and Jo has to make sure she doesn't stand downwind of him. We make note that in the next burn we cross, Alan is going to wash his socks.

The sky is full of long white strips which look like clouds, though dissipate over time. They are in fact jet streams left by the many commercial jets flying over us. This area appears to be a flight highway.

On approaching Ardoch farm we notice a new breed of long haired black cows, so big and hairy they look like a cross between a bear and a cow. Closer to the farm buildings we find a separate field of adolescent bulls which charge around the field. First away from us as they appear to be intimidated by our presence. Round in the other side of the field, they forget that we are here, and as one charge towards their food troughs, spot us, hesitate and run away again. This cycle is repeated several times.

We spy a black face sheep missing one of its horns - presumably they can be knocked off or infected or something.


A very hairy black cow, that almost looks like a bear.	Some young bulls display a total lack of intelligence as they first run from us and then run back towards their food which lies near us continuously


The bright green grass contrasts the deep blue sky. Not a sight you see often in Scotland.	Supposed to be an old settlement somewhere near here, not that we can see it.

We continue on through farmland with fields of cows and sheep for company. There are good views all around us, back to the Galloway hills and ahead to the forested hills lying between us and Sanquhar. We continue past rolling bright green hills with daisies, but ahead the pasture gets a lot more rough and straw coloured. It's another scorcher of a day, with bazaar Flying saucer like clouds lining in the sky. We are greatly looking forward to a meal of lamb and mint sausages cut up into pasta, but chose not to stop for lunch until we find a place where we can fill up on water. We hasten to Butterhole Bridge, the next substantial stream on the way.

This walking over a great expanse of ugly farmland is made pleasurable by the surrounding views of the distant hills all around us and the hot weather. Alan spots some more wind turbines, a source of fascination for him.


We approach a range of forested hills which the SUW does a ridge walk through.	Those cows look like they're going to be spirited away by that flying saucer cloud!


The Black Water at Butterhole Bridge provides a scenic place for a spot of lunch	Alan cooks some local mint and lamb sausages while sheltering under his makeshift sunhat.

We stop for lunch by Butterhole Bridge and enjoy some locally bought honeymoon cakes. They are so idyllic, that they cannot be resisted! We curse ourselves for not bringing sunhats, as its scorching sun yet again, and this time there is no shade to rest in, - only one bare Ash tree nearby. We make makeshift sunhats out of our unused fleecy tops, which although warm are a huge relief. Our shadows look menacing with the fleece tops over our heads and the tubes from the water bottles coming round our shoulders. We notice for the first time on this trip that there are a few clouds in the sky and wonder if this is a sign that the weather is about to turn.


Our shadows look kind of scary with our water bottle hoses, and makeshift sunhats. Alan thinks we look like Borgs.	Jo looks a bit silly with her makeshift sun hat!


We approach the hills.	That's a weird looking symmetrical hump of green we are heading towards - looks manmade but is in fact a glaciation feature.

After lunch we continue along the track for a short while, and are overtaken by a family of cyclists. If travelling on road or track, cycling is the way to do it. Jo sights a massive dragonfly near a small muddy puddle which she claims was the size of a small bird.

A path takes us across more farmland and Culmark hill, which is really just a pimple compared to the surrounding hills. In weather like this it does afford some pretty spectacular panoramic views with the azure blue gradient sky overhead. The lack of waymarks and path over this section makes it difficult to tell where you are going. We amble across the fields in a logical direction and find a waymarker eventually on the other side of a valley of drumlins which Alan mistakenly calls "boglins". We take a 10 minute break at the last burn before we start climbing the forest covered hills, and make sure we have enough water for the night as we plan on camping somewhere in the middle of these hills. Just past the bridge, we are confronted with an upside down saucer shape symmetrical green hill, which according to our guidebook is believed to have formed completely naturally, and not by man which one would assume at first sight. There is also a burial cist in this area.


We are both starting to look really very silly now.	While stopping to fill up on water, we notice that the bridge, which looks common and boring from the path turns out to have weird arches across its length. Alan describes it as being made out of concrete pipes


Is that another set of wind turbines in the distance? We notice that many seem to be completely still, either because they're facing the wrong way at the moment or have been locked for maintenance.	The hill tops are covered in brown grasses.

After a quick 200m jaunt along the road we take a left briefly joining the track leading to Stroanpatrick. This is officially a SUW pick up point for those who don't want a 25 mile day and are staying in bed and breakfasts. The track has a gate on it which reads private, no public right of way, and we wonder how legal this is. To get up to Manquhill Hill, we start heading up a ridge, shaped by glaciers during the last ice age. The ridge has been scraped right down to the hard rock that you see today. We cross the empty farmland and see a farmer herding his sheep with a quad bike. The sun is dimmed momentarily by big fluffy rolling cumulus clouds rolling in from the West. This is the first dimming of the sun in about 5 or 6 days.

We leave the farmland in the outer reaches of Manquhill Hill and enter coniferous forest. We find that Manquhill hill is the one adjacent to the hill with the wind turbines. As we near the summit, the forest opens out into a large clearing encompassing the entire top of the hill, giving views across the surrounding mountains. Alan rolls about in the grass with his rucksack to position his camera for another shot. We both co-operate and manage to produce a panorama or the top of Manquhill Hill, before locating a nice sheltered spot to camp down off the summit.


The top of Manquhill hill	Looking towards a wind farm


Our tent pitched on the South East side of Manquhill Hill	We see the mass of clouds coming in from the West and wonder if our luck is about to change - will it rain tomorrow?

We erect the tent, and notice the first proper clouds coming in from the West and realise that our good luck with the weather may be up as it looks like a weather front is coming in. The clouds are lit underneath by the reddish glow of the sunset. The hill on which the turbines are situated is appropriately named Wether Hill, since before the wind turbines were situated there. The hill we are camped on, the name means wooded hill, which it is not including the summit. Alan fries up some fantastic smelling bacon and cheese rolls, and Jo who claimed not to be hungry suddenly finds herself drooling over them takes 4 large bites out of them.


The sunset tints the clouds pink	The sun is already starting to hide behind clouds.

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The Southern Upland Way: Scotland's Coast to Coast

St John's Town of Dalry to our wild campsite on Manquhill Hill

Thursday 5th April St John's Town of Dalry to Manquhill Hill

Thursday 5th April
St John's Town of Dalry to Manquhill Hill