Wanlockhead to Beattock

This route is one of 12 sections of the Southern Upland Way. You will have seen the golf ball on the top of Lowther Hill as you came in to Wanlockhead the day before and now you will be climbing up to it.

The views here start as soon as you leave the village and just get bigger and better the higher you go. When you reach the top the golf ball towers over you. This is the Lowther Hill Radar Station and gives the summit a very different feel to any other on the route. As you start to come down the other side you will be able to see Daer Reservoir, our next destination. The route goes through the Dalveen pass and then into woodland. At the reservoir you will head across the top of the dam and once you start to climb the other side you will get fantastic views back across the water.

Once reaching the top you will go back into forestry which you will be in for most of the rest of the section. About half way through you will come across Brattleburn Bothy where you can stop for the night to break up the route. At the end of the forestry is Earshaig Lochans, a small wildlife site popular with locals. This is where you join the crooked road. A small and windy road that takes you down to Beattock with views across to Moffat the whole way down. Along here you also join the Annandale Way, another long distance route. At the bottom Beattock has a pub to enjoy a good meal and a pint. Or you could go a few miles off route to Moffat where there is a range of shops, pubs and hotels.