We began our day with a walk to the power station dam at
Tongland a few miles away from Kircudbright. We thought that the dam was on a
small island and therefore worthy of a visit. We were disappointed to hear that
the Power station’s visitor centre, only refurbished in 2010, is no longer
open. Perhaps we could get to the dam though!
We started walking near the A711 then crossed the Thomas
Telford Tongland Bridge, dangerous in its narrow paths and lorry traffic. The
river rises and falls over 6 metres and when we drove by on Tuesday the river
bed rock had been visible. At the end of the bridge was a footpath along the
river Dee’s bank leading to the grand looking Power Station. The river was
running rapidly away from the Station towards the bridge, dark and turbulent.
We turned right at the road and followed it for a mile. We
could hear loud noises from the quarry nearby. There were red kites hunting
over the fields on the right. There was some sort of industry on the left of
the road. We climbed quite a way and were overtaken by some elderly lady
cyclists. Down a cul de sac by some houses we found the bridge to the dam but
there was no way to get to it- all was fenced off.
We retraced our steps and saw the water had been turned off
from the Power Station and the river was calm. We didn’t feel too disappointed
today as we had a good walk and our expectations were set a good deal lower.
Threave House and gardens were our next destination.
Unfortunately because the storm had taken out power to the house the day before
there was a backlog of visitors who had booked the house tour. We just walked
the gardens which were lovely and spent a while in the bird hide in the woods
watching red squirrels and woodpeckers. Delightful!
After having a light lunch at Threave we went to Galloway
forest and did a circular walk- with the midges- near a river with waterfalls
-which was beautiful with wild flowers and very secluded.
We decided to visit the wildlife centre near Kircudbright and had it to ourselves. Beware the rutted
and stony track to the place. Ring tailed lemurs were running loose and we
could get really close. Bob has a problem with zoos. It was nice to see servals
and wild cat, tapirs and capybara but they wouldn’t be in this environment
naturally. A few had passed away and not been replaced which was odd to read on
their enclosures. Children could handle guinea-pigs and I am sure earlier in
the day other species would be available. Although the centre is run down a bit
the animals looked happy and I was looked in the eye more than once!
It was a lovely late afternoon so we decided to try for
another island. The peninsula of St Mary’s Isle lies in the estuary of the
river Dee just south of Kircudbright. It divides the bays of Manxman’s Lake and
Goat Well bay. The tidal islet of Inch lies just offshore in Manxman’s Lake.
It was a circular walk of over 3 miles including Inch. We
had to climb several fallen trees and we had to carefully pick our way across
little grassy boggy patches. Most of the walk was beside more wild garlic that
I can no longer smell, much to my dismay. There was a wide track used by
joggers and the odd car or bike, but mostly we were on our own. We went
anti-clockwise and the first part was definitely the prettiest. Through trees
with views across the water we reached the end of the peninsula. Here trees had
been felled and removed leaving sites of dereliction. It was here we had to
climb over smaller exposed trees that fell naturally and the ground was boggier
presumably because there was little to soak up the water. We could see the tide
was out and the island looked accessible. We noted where we got through the
undergrowth ( a tree with a hole) and went across grassy hillocks like stepping
stones in water. Care was needed as a slip down could twist an ankle. There
were plenty of discarded mussel shells. An oyster catcher became very agitated
and we presumed there was a nest nearby. The island had long grass and a few
trees, by our definition big enough to support one sheep for a year and
therefore an island despite it being tiny. We soon saw what there was to see
and left the oyster catcher in peace. The rest of the walk was less inspiring
and we had probably clocked up about 8 miles walking today.
Here is the link to Bobs video
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