Mossdale to Gatehouse Station Railway Path

8.47 miles 3h 37m ascent 131m (in light drizzle)

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Mossdale to Skerrow Halt (and back)

This was the last part of our January Railway Walk, another there and back outing since unnecessary car sharing is still frowned upon. I’m not sure there is much I can write that I haven’t already written about this walk.

It was as you can see above, a grey day, too chilly to tarry at Skerrow for lunch, or coffee for that matter. I tried applying my new-found dry stone wall knowledge to those that we saw…Galloway Dyke style with double lower layers and single layers higher up. and light visible through the upper stones.

We did walk down to the boathouse at Loch Skerrow but I didn’t trust the floorboards not to cave in, so just peered round the door.

This completed our January walk along the old “Port Road” railway. It is 11 miles and an easy walk for one day though we walked it in in there-and-back sections. The path has been upgraded in the last few years. What was once overgrown and impassable, is now clear. What was often flooded is now resurfaced and raised. It is on the old railway except for a couple of diversions to avoid the viaducts over The Big Water and Little Water of Fleet. The only problem for a linear walk is that there is no public transport to Gatehouse Station and it’s a long drive between the start and finish.

First section. Gatehouse Station to Big Water of Fleet
Second Section. Big Water of Fleet to Loch Skerrow.
Third Section. Loch Skerrow to Mossdale (this post and this one)

Look out for:

The stations at Mossdale and Rusko “Gatehouse Station” which are now cottages and the ruins of the station at Skerrow Halt and the now burnt fencing.

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The viaducts at Stroan Loch and Big Water of Fleet, what remains of that at Little Water of Fleet and the new Grobdale Burn Bridge.

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Lochs Skerrow and Stroan. Black Water of Dee, the Fleets tributaries (Big and Small), the Airie Burn.

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The Druim Mor, the great ridge of the Clints of Dromore.

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The five chained artworks are nearby. “Ocean” hangs above the railway below the clints and “Heart” in the ruins of Little Cullendoch is just 20m off the trail. “Sceneshifter” sits a little further away, perhaps 200m, in the Big Water of Fleet. The last two, “Erratic” beneath Cairnsmore of Fleet, and “Hush” atop the Clints of Dromore are a little further away.

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The “Galloway Dyke” dry stone walls and, if the season is with you, the hedgerows.

And, of course, look up for the Red Kites