I couldn’t be bothered with the maps but hopefully the descriptions will be helpful to anyone who fancies this part of the route.
Portpatrick to Stranraer
Theres some steps up from portpatrick to the cliff top – they aren’t too steep so you could push the bike up with out too much trouble. After that the route follows the cliffs and drops down in to a couple of bays where you’ll need to carry you’re bike – its a lovely stretch of the route in terms of scenery but hard going where you need to carry the bike. If you’ve got a lot of gear and can’t shoulder your bike, you should miss this bit out and go the road way out of Portpatrick, taking a left just outside the village and you’ll pick up the SUW at the turning for Killantringan lighthouse. After that its all rideable (mostly farm road) to Stranraer with a nice but fairly short section of singletrack roughly halfway.
Stranraer to New Luce
Practically all rideable – Just outside Castle Kennedy village and Gardens, you pick up the road to New Luce here, as you start the climb, there’s a short section of SUW which goes off to the right, its very steep and not much fun as it takes you through a muddy cattle field so I’d advise you miss it out (if traveling with gear) as it joins back to the road a little bit further up. At the top of the hill, the route heads off toward Glenwhan moor where there’s a nice section of singletrack nearly all the way the luce valley, then a fairly steep drop down to the railway line – after that, you need to push for a bit until you clear the trees and can cycle over the river and push for another little bit up a very short but steep hill back to the road. You can take a short detour into the Village of New Luce here, theres a (very) small shop and a pub with a beer garden next to the river which made a nice stop for us.
New Luce to Bargrennan
Theres a fairly steep climb out of New Luce on farm track, the route takes you past some ancient caves/burial Cairns and then links on to road for a short bit before going totally off road through fields/bogs just north of Balmurrie farm. This section was a PITA – theres no trail at this point, but there are wooden waymarkers (sometimes hard to spot) every few hundred meters to keep you on course. You’ll need to push your bike as its almost totaly unrideable for just over a mile and goes through a peatbog which you’ll get wet feet from without appropriate footwear. After you come through the fields the trail is visible again and cuts through a wooded section for a few miles – its hard going again here as the trail is boggy and muddy but soon improves to half decent singletrack as you get closer to Laganngarn where the Beehive bothy is situated. Its a nice wooded bothy but no fireplace. The single track continues on passed some interesting standing stones and picks up forest fire road soon after. Your not on the fire road for long before the SUW goes off up a fairly steep hill but we skipped this and stuck to the fire road which just goes round the hill. From here on its plain sailing all the way to Bargrennan mosty farm/back roads – theres a couple of short sections of which take you off the road as you get closer to Bargrennan but they aren’t great for riding and easy to skip. Theres a pub at Bargrennan which does decent food, and a campsite with shop. Theres loads of good spots in the woods here though if you are camping – we found a cracking spot on the shore of Loch Trool, not far from the old Caldons campsite which is now abandoned.
Bargrennan to Dalry
They changed the trail out of Bargrennan to Loch Trool a few years back which you might need to bear in mind if your using an old map. We missed this bit out as we’d been in the pub for a couple and were camping at Loch Trool so just headed up the fire road – it looked like half decent forest single track from what we saw though. The forest road way takes you passed the 7 Stanes trail centre cafe which serves sandwiches and has an outside tap for refilling water. Once you get to Loch Trool, if you have a lot of gear, I’d advise sticking to the forest road north of the loch which leads to the car park at the base of Bruces monument . We didn’t do this and followed the SUW round the south side of the Loch and it was really tough going for the lads laden with gear. Lots of really steep sections, steps etc but probably mostly rideable and good fun without the gear – some good gnarly/technical descents. You also pass the battleground where Robet the Bruce defeated an English force ten times his size which was quite interesting to read about. Once you clear Loch Trool, theres a steep climb on forest road with some great views of the Galloway hills at the top. The forest road continues on for a good while passed Loch Dee and the Whitelaggan bothy and on to Clatteringshaws Loch. Just north of the Loch, the SUW leaves the fire road and goes over a few hills, we missed this section as we were running short on time and just stuck to the forest road and then back road over a hill and down to the Ken valley and St Johns Town of Dalry for a couple more pints and pub tea before being collected.
