The Flow

Sometimes the best walks are those you know well but it takes a little effort to see the things that you have walked past so many times. A whisky tasting the previous evening meant that my walk needed to start later in the day than usual. Mrs D ‘n’ S took the dogs for their morning constitutional and they joined me later to explore Kirkconnell Flow. A little history first then a description of the walk.

The retreating glaciers of 10,000 years ago left a large block of ice embedded in the sediments of the Nith valley. When this melted a shallow loch was formed at what is now Kirkconnel Flow. Plants colonised the loch and its surroundings and as the years passed accumulating sediments transformed the loch into a bog, an ideal niche for sphagnum mosses. Over the last 6,000 years these mosses have grown, died, been converted into peat, and built up above the level of the original loch forming soil dry enough to allow heather, Scots pine and birches to take hold. The trees then further dried the land and humans left their mark, cutting peat and digging drainage ditches.

The area is now a national nature reserve and in the last few years it has been managed to return the area to its previous state as an active raised peat bog. Over 50,000 trees were felled clearing the central bog of trees and another 12,000 in thinning the surrounding forest. Much of the raised bog is now covered in heather but the southern portion is returning to sphagnum moss.
DSC07113

I have tried walking all the way around the flow on a number of occasions and I am now pretty certain that the track at the southern end no longer exists, indeed I suspect some effort has gone into obliterating it. I don’t usually write reports about visits here but you can find the description of my first circumambulation in The Lost Patrol.

There are several distinct areas in this walk, and these are perhaps representative of different stages in the Flow’s development. The first section is through a birch wood which in some places looks to have been pollarded. The woods are not in their natural state since some trees have been felled in thinning the woods. The remaining tree stumps are covered with mosses and small patches of grey lichen. The dogs ran happily through the trees, the pup chasing butterflies and the older boy snuffling in the undergrowth. Perhaps one day he’ll surprise me and come out with a truffle.

P1040574

The only bright colours at present are the yellow gorse and numerous white wood-sorrel flowers. The birches have an occasional Scots Pine among them such as the tree below with moss limited to its sunny side. The area must be ideal for the birches since there are numerous saplings making a concerted effort to return the wood to its usual density. There is even a small group of spruce growing in amongst the birches. The undergrowth is quite varied with sections of dense brambles, some purple moor grass (most as tussocks but some actually flashing a little purple), some ling and in clearings, normal short grass. And of course some mud for Eddie to jump in to.

P1040576

The birches eventually give way to Scots Pine, but here as well the thinned forest is fighting back. There are numerous deciduous saplings here and a profusion of young holly bushes. Off the beaten track I could see some rhododendrons hanging on to their territory, alien survivors of the previous culling.

P1040578

As I walked through these woods over the last few months I have noticed a beech tree beside the path that has held on to its shrivelled autumnal brown leaves throughout the winter and into spring. Having noticed this I have looked a little more carefully and seen glimpses of others deeper in the woods, also beech. Apparently beech and oak are semi-deciduous and keep some of their leaves through the winter. I can’t work out the benefit of that but there must be something.

Much of the ground here is taken up by the skeletal green stems of blaeberry which are just now throwing out leaves beneath which are hidden red tinged buds. Within a few weeks there will be a thick carpet of leaf covering the forest floor.

P1040580

The woods were filled with birdsong and though I’m not particularly good at identifying these, the squeaky-pump “tea-cher” sound of the great tit was easy to pick out in the birch wood. The sound of birds lessened once we left the woods to walk across the heather and grassland, birdsong replaced by the caw of crows, honking of geese and a baying cow.

The raised peat bog stands about a metre proud of the surrounding land and the plants do not change much as you climb on to it. The photos below show today’s walk and a similar area last year. The saplings have now been felled and seem to have been deliberately placed across the path.

P1040586

 

DSC06826

Carlin Loch, a small area of open water shown on older maps is no longer here but there is a broad water-filled ditch. This probably started life as a drainage channel, but is now dammed to maintain a high enough water table for the peat bog to regenerate.

Some of the cut saplings lie across the ditch and though they sink a little when walked on they did allow me to cross without too much of a dipping. The dogs, who swam the last time we crossed, came across the sapling “bridge” this time, which was unusual because they don’t usually care how wet they get.

P1040587

After the water channel the ground was a little wetter and sphagnum moss was making a comeback in places. Strangely there were also patches of grey lichen which usually like drier ground. The route is much less clear here but there are posts which must once have marked the route. Where the track has been completely lost to the plant life these posts were our guide, though there were none when we needed them most.

The southwestern part of the bog is fenced in though the gate we found stood wide open. The photo below is taken from the gate and as you can see there is a very obvious track. If you look carefully though you will see that the dogs are not using it, running through the heather instead. This is because the apparent path is sphagnum moss and the dogs were sinking up to the top of their legs when walking on it. I made the mistake of stepping on to it and had water spill into my shoes, more than once.

P1040590

The path-that-must-not-be-walked-on led across the bog to the trees on the far side and another open gate. Over to the right there is another gate, a sliding gate, also standing a little open but rather than strike out for that we went for the far gate by the trees. Here an obvious track leads through deep mud into the trees. I had previously used that route and not been able to find the way back so this time I followed the fence around to the the sliding gate. A pool wetted my foot again hereabouts.

P1040592

From the gate I struck out towards the edge of the bog hoping to come across the track heading back. A few weeks before I had walked in the other direction and when the track disappeared I had come across to the sliding gate.

There are tree stumps from what must have been an isolated stand of pines and they were as good a target as any to aim for. The terrain here was quite varied, heather in places, sphagnum in others, old saplings, pools of standing water and branches to trap the feet (I tumbled once, twisting an ankle and pulling a hamstring but felt gratified to find the dogs came back to see I was alright) .

P1040597

I must have walked directly across the old path without noticing it and found the going quite tough, so I headed back up on to the raised bog and spotted one of the path marker posts. Care is needed though, since there are other posts which have nothing to do with the path. I was pretty sure that this was a path marker but there was absolutely no sign of the path near it.

I think a concerted effort has gone into removing the path but once we got closer to the trees, more markers were seen and I found the path. On the picture below Sweep is walking along the track. The greenery on the ground is all felled conifer saplings.

P1040601

 

This photo is a few years ago when the conifers were much smaller.

 

DSC06822

Coming back into the woods the birdsong surrounded us again and we were soon back to the main track which has a walkway through some wetland. This is presumably where peat has been cut in the past. I haven’t walked in the water but the dogs run through it so I presume it is mostly just a few inches deep. I wonder if this is what the area may have been like 6,000 years ago before the sphagnum moss became dominant.

Below are photos in different seasons.

IMG_1449

Spring

 

Summer

Summer

 

Autumn

Autumn

 

IMG_1375

Winter

 

 

 

IMG_1457 IMG_1458 IMG_1461 IMG_1464 IMG_1465 IMG_1466
  
[osmap gpx=”http://www.screel.co.uk/walks/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/RK_gpx-_2015-04-18_1236.gpx”]
 

This entry was posted in Dumfries & Galloway. Bookmark the permalink.