Weekend Walk: Colvend coast
Last updated 14:41, Thursday, 10 April 2008
Crossing the border to discover Scotland’s dramatic coastline
MAP: OS Landranger 84, Dumfries and Castle Douglas; or Explorer map 313.
PARKING: Beach car park in Sandyhills on the A710, south of Dalbeattie (GR NX890551).
REFRESHMENTS: The Garden Room café and Baron’s Craig Hotel in Rockcliffe; the Anchor Hotel in Kippford.
DISTANCE: 10.3 miles
TOTAL ascent: 1,750ft
TIME: 4¾ to 5¾ hours
GRADE: Intermediate
OVERVIEW: With the exception of St Bees Head, stunning sea-cliff scenery is one of the few things lacking from Cumbria’s vast catalogue of landscapes. Just north of the border, though, is a gorgeous piece of coastline, stretching from Sandyhills to Kippford.
A well-used footpath rides the roller-coaster cliffs and rocky foreshore of Rough Firth for more than five miles, passing a natural arch, seabird colonies and an Iron Age fort. From Kippford, our route heads inland to return to Sandyhills via woodland paths and forest tracks.
THE WALK: From the car park in Sandyhills, head down the wooden boardwalk to the beach and then turn right. At the far end of the campsite, cross the wooden footbridge and then turn right. Walking through the bracken, you ignore a faint path off to the right and soon come to a crossing of paths. Turn left and, almost immediately, right. The path soon forks again – the left-hand branch heads down to a bench where you can sit and look out over the bay; our branch bears right, uphill through the trees.
Once through the kissing-gate at the top, keep close to the fence on your left. The cliffs below are home to a natural arch known as the Needle’s Eye. It is not easy to spot from above, but the best view is from the next kissing-gate.
Eventually, you climb to the viewing platform on top of Torrs Hill (0.6 miles from the start). Guided by a series of metal kissing-gates and wall stiles, you drop down to the road in Portling. Turn right and then, at the top of the lane, turn left towards Port O’Warren and Rockcliffe (1.1 miles from the start).
The rough road drops down to Port O’Warren and, as it does so, watch for a signpost next to a stile in a wall on your right. Cross this (signpost reads: “Castlepoint 2¼ Rockcliffe 2¾”) and head uphill. As on many sections on this walk, the rampant gorse encroaches on the path here and you will probably end up with scratched legs.
Having climbed the flank of White Hill and crossed the top of some impressive cliffs, you can drop down to a cross-topped stone cairn just off the main path (2.3 miles from the start). This commemorates the wreck of the Elbe.
Continuing on the main coastal route, the path now stays on the seaward side of the field boundaries and passes a ruined building above an almost totally enclosed beach.
As you approach Castlepoint on the eastern edge of Rough Firth, you cross a wall near a footpath sign. Just after this, there is a kissing-gate on the left; this leads on to the beach. The next kissing-gate gives access to the Castlepoint headland, the site of an Iron Age fort dating back to about 400BC.
Having rounded the headland (3.35 miles from the start), the path veers north and begins to head towards Rockcliffe. It keeps to the edge of the field for about 200 yards and then drops down through gorse and bracken to the rocky foreshore. You find yourself on the beach proper close to an isolated cottage and then continue sometimes along the shingle and sometimes along a constructed path just a few feet back from the shore.
The path clearly forks close to a sewage works. Take either branch; they soon converge and, where they do so, continue in a roughly northerly direction. On reaching a surfaced lane, turn left and, at the road, left again.
Walk through the village until the road ends close to a toilet block. Turn right here and climb to a gate. Once through it, turn left and then right through another gate. This path quickly forks – ignoring the waymarker, bear left and then left again when you reach a wide track.
This track passes to the left of Keepers cottage. As it approaches a lovely, whitewashed cottage, leave it by turning sharp right along a narrower, surfaced path (towards Kippford).
The surfaced path ends at a fork, where you bear left to walk with a wall on your left. On reaching the water’s edge, turn right. Just after passing the village shop on your right, you will reach the main slipway. Turn right here, up an unsurfaced lane between two cottages (5.5 miles from the start). When this ends, keep straight ahead on a narrow path through the trees. This veers left and you squeeze between a fence on your left and more gorse on your right. Almost immediately, the path forks.
Bear right here and, in a few yards, ignore a faint path off to the right. Climbing through the trees, you come to a forest track where you turn left.
As the track climbs, ignore two turnings on your right. It then drops down to a junction of paths in a small, stony clearing. There are two paths to your left here; take the right-hand one. This dips and then climbs gently to a left-hand bend. Leave the track here by turning right along a faint footpath. This heads through the trees and eventually emerges on to a rough vehicle track where you turn left (6.3 miles from the start).
When you reach the main road, turn left and then immediately right – along a quiet lane. Ignoring one track off to the left, you approach the lane-end at Auchensheen.
Go through the small gate on your left (signpost reads: “Access to the forest”) and follow the path round to another small gate, beyond which you make your way to the wall on the right. Walk alongside the wall and then through a gate at the forest edge. Follow the path up to a wide forest track where you turn right (signpost reads: “Colvend”).
At the next fork, bear right to pass Barean Loch. At the far end of the loch, the track splits again (7.9 miles from the start). Bear left here, uphill. After about a quarter-of-a-mile, you reach a junction of paths near to a building partly hidden by trees to the right. Turn left, up a narrow path. When this swings sharp left to pass between two old stone posts, keep straight ahead along a faint, grassy path.
After about 200 yards, you reach a clearing where you turn sharp right. The path is very indistinct as it makes it way through the vegetation along level ground. After a particularly damp and overgrown patch, the going gets easier as you follow what remains of an old forest track.
Turn left at the next T-junction, along a much clearer track. After about a quarter-of-a-mile, the track swings left. Leave it here by turning right along a grassy path. Go through the wooden gate at the forest edge and then turn right along the vehicle track.
Soon after passing the Newbarns archaeological dig – which has unearthed some ancient burial chambers – you reach the road. Turn left and the Sandyhills car park is about half-a-mile ahead on your right.
POINTS OF INTEREST: Captain Wilson and the crew of the Elbe had a lucky escape when the schooner ran into trouble on a journey from Maryport in December 1867.
Temporarily anchored in Balcary Bay near Kippford, the ship’s cables snapped and its rudder was broken during a sudden gale. At the mercy of the waves, the schooner began to drift towards the cliffs near Port O’Warren. As she approached them, several of the crew managed to clamber ashore. The next wave again brought the vessel near the cliffs, and two more jumped ashore safely.
One remained on board, but a third wave allowed him to reach solid ground too. The Elbe then drifted away and sank about a mile offshore.
