Group “Away Break” 2025 to Newton Stewart, September 29th -October 3rd
This year the group decided to visit Newton Stewart in Dumfries and Galloway. This is an area well known for walking, and we were looking forward to exploring an area which was new to most of us.
We had been watching the forecast for weeks, but as the event approached the forecast got considerably worse. Nevertheless, it was quite a large group who made the 2.5 hour trip south on the Monday morning, some taking a rather interesting route over the moors on single track road.
Creebridge House Hotel
Most of the group were staying at Creebridge House Hotel, over the river from Newton Stewart, but an easy walk to the shops for sandwiches or rolls.
As the first day looked like the best one weather wise, we decided to divide into two groups to do a B+ walk and a C+ walk.
Summit of Benyellary on our way to Merrick
Ten of the group set off to climb the Merrick, but rather than the longer recced but very boggy route, we followed the Walk Highlands route from Loch Trool. The weather was wet and windy, and we didn’t hang around for long as there were virtually no views.
The actual summit has an impressive shelter cairn, although with strong wind and driving rain it did not provide us with very much shelter.
The rest of the walkers managed to stay out of the clouds and enjoyed a gentler walk around Loch Trool and visited Bruce’s Stone, a striking granite boulder perched above Loch Trool commemorating Robert the Bruce’s first victory over English forces in 1307 during the Scottish Wars of Independence.
Bruce's stone near Loch Trool
Everybody enjoyed the walk but because it had not been officially recced it turned out to be longer and more strenuous than expected.
The weather forecast continued to get worse, and when we had our meeting on Tuesday night, the consensus was that nobody really wanted to go up another hill in the rain the following day, and so our leader ended up having a group of 17 for his walk from Garlieston to Cruggleton Castle.
The remains of Cruggleton Castle
It was a flattish walk, sheltered by trees but still plenty of opportunities to get wet and muddy due to the large puddles on route. The walk took us via Rigg Bay, a wide shallow bay once used by the military as a training area for using a "Mulberry Harbour". Mulberries were temporary, artificial ports which allowed the Allies to retake mainland Europe during the 2nd World War. They were manufactured in Britain and towed across the English Channel before being assembled by the Royal Engineers to allow heavy machinery to be unloaded from ships. The remains of the Castle are very picturesque but somewhat minimalist and, rather windswept on the day we visited. On our return we walked through the grounds of Galloway House and had views of the grand Galloway House and gardens from the path.
On Wednesday Night some of the group headed into Newton Stewart to see Downton Abbey at the Cinema, and one of our members made the trip up from Vale of Leven to join us on Thursday’s walk.
With more News Announcements about the coming of Storm Amy, we decided as a group to do another C+ walk on the Thursday and all stick together as a group.
Fast flowing River on Waters of Minnoch Trail
Given the rising River levels and torrential rain, the Water of Minnoch circuit, Glen Trool looked to be an interesting route where we were quite close to the water at times and the fast flowing River was certainly spectacular. Luckily the path hadn’t washed away, although it was quite wet at times. By this stage though we were used to getting soaked and just waded on knowing that everything would soon be dumped in the car and taken home to dry out
Most people set off early on the Friday morning, to get home before the storm really hit. The Cree already looked close to bursting its banks when we left, and the drive across the moors was quite hairy at times, but within 3 hours we were home and faced with heaps of washing and drying.
It was a really enjoyable time away, despite the weather, but all agreed it would be good to explore the area again without the rain.
Thanks everyone for the company, and especially the organisers who gave up so much of their time to make sure we had a good trip
October 2025