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| Mossdale Walk and Kite Sculpture | |||||||||||||||
| This 2.5km circular walk starts from opposite the Post Office, where there is an interpretative board and an impressive wooden sculpture of a red kite, created by local sculptor Peter Bowsher. The tranquil and attractive hamlet of Mossdale lies in an open enclave on the edge of Galloway Forest Park. The walk affords wonderful views of Mossdale Loch, Old Bridge of Dee, Bennan and Airie Hills.
Kites Kites can be seen from anywhere on the open parts of the walk at any time of the year, but perhaps the best places to look are over the nearby woods and just above the skyline. |
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Other birds Buzzards are common throughout the year, while hen harriers are fairly regular outwith the breeding season. The roadside just north of Mossdale is a regular spot for whinchats in summer, whereas stonechats are found throughout the year. Whaups (curlews), a few |
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lapwings and snipe usually breed in the area, as do wheatears and a range of common woodland birds. The wooded part of the walk is good for willow tits, great-spotted and (occasionally) green woodpeckers, whilst jays and ravens are never far away. At dusk and in the |
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evening, this a regular haunt of barn, tawny and long-eared owls, with the former being most conspicuous hunting over the long grass surrounding the hamlet. Other attractions Roe deer are frequently seen in fields and along the woodland edge, with red squirrels a possibility in Garrel's Wood. Mossdale Station was a halt on the old 'Paddy Line' from Dumfries to Stranraer. Closed as part of the infamous Beeching review in 1965, this former railway was one of the most scenic in the UK and provided the model for Hannay's daring escape in John Buchan's classic novel, The 39 Steps. Buchan knew the line from holidays spent at Gatehouse-of-Fleet, and to this day his readers walk the line in search of the Hannay's secluded culvert and the scene of his fictional flight. Mossdale is at one end of the Raiders' Road Forest Drive (tolled), which follows the atmospheric Black Water of Dee as it winds its way through forest and peat flowe, affording wonderful views of the rugged and relatively little known Galloway Hills. The appellation Raiders' Road derives from S.R. Crockett's novel, The Raiders, which was a bestseller in Victorian times and is still popular in Galloway to this day. |
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How to get there Mossdale lies on the A762 some 4 miles south of New Galloway. Park near the post office (there is a small car park towards the station from the PO), where there is an interpretative board and an impressive sculpture of a red kite. Follow the track past the Galloway Kite Trail post to the old station and turn right |
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| under the old railway bridge. Follow the line of the old railway until a 'summer seat' and a second Galloway Kite Trail post are reached after about 200m. From there, the walk crosses open farmland to the woodland edge and onto the Raiders' Road Forest Drive. Turn right onto the road and follow it for some 500m, whereupon a footpath re-enters the woodland and descends to Mossdale Loch through Garrel's Wood. The path eventually rejoins the path from Mossdale, which can then be followed back to the start. | |||||||||||||||
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