Gatehouse to Sandgreen

About Gatehouse to Sandgreen

This circular woodland, countryside and coastal walk is 12.5km and takes approximately 4 hours to complete. It consists of beaten earth, hard surface track, sandy beach and minor road. It is of moderate difficulty and stout shoes or boots recommended. Parking is available at the Murray Centre. There is an information point here which is open during the day from April to October.

Head out of Gatehouse on the B727 towards Kirkcudbright for a short distance then follow the Forestry Commission signs to Cally Woods and the Murray Centre. Turn left down the main avenue and continue past the Cally Palace Hotel. This magnificent building once served as the seat of the Murray family and during the war the house was used as a school for evacuees from Glasgow. Beyond Cally Palace go under the main road and 23 on the left note ‘Laundry Cottage’ which once served the main house as a laundry. Continue past Cally Mains Farm, ignoring the track to the left signed to the farm. Cally Mains was originally the Home Farm.

Beyond Cally Mains you pass through some very fine oak and beech woodland and may be ucky enough to see treecreepers and spotted flycatchers. In the spring this woodland is alive with newly arrived warblers and their varied song is a delight to hear. Follow the track down to Sandgreen and enjoy fine views across the Fleet Estuary, with the hills Ben John and Cairnharrow dominating the scene. Sandgreen is a good place to stop for a picnic before setting off on the return journey.

From Sandgreen follow the tarmac road past the shop and telephone box for about half a mile then turn left at the T-junction. Continue along the road to the Clauchan of Girthon. Note the ruins of the Old Parish Church on your right. This partly pre-Reformation Church, reconstructed in the 17th Century, was in use up to 1818.

From Girthon, continue along the road to the National Cycle Route 7 sign. Turn left onto the cycle path and re-enter the woods. At the junction, turn right then watch out for a path and clearing to the left where you will find The Temple – an amusing Gothic folly built as a ruin 25 in 1778. On leaving The Temple, return to the main path and go under the A75 again. Follow the path back to Cally Avenue via Belvedere Lodge and Cally Gardens then retrace your steps to the Murray Centre.