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Scotland Scotland 07/02/2013 10:36 01 Criffel, Dumfries and Galloway 02 Dundee, Angus l Distance 12km/7½ miles l Time 5hrs l Type Hill and moor l Distance 8km/5 miles l Time 2hrs l Type Urban NAvIGATION LEVEL FITNESS LEVEL NAvIGATION LEVEL FITNESS LEVEL walk magazine spring 2013 walk magazine spring 2013 plan your walk plan your walk
DUMFRIES & GALLOWAy ANGUS DUNDEE l
l Lockerbie Dumfries l St Andrews
Glenrothes l
CRIFFEL l Carlisle
Keswick l
Where: Circular walk over Where: Urban walk around Criffel and Knockendoch, the city of Dundee. hy: keith fergus PhotograPhy: above the Galloway coast. Start/end: Discovery keith fergus PhotograPhy: Start/end: Sweetheart Point, Dundee (NO404298). Rising from the flat plains of the 1. START From the car park, walk Dundee may be best known for its 1. START From Discovery Point, Abbey car park, New Abbey terrain: Pavement, Galloway coast, a few miles from past the magnificent remains of jute, jam and journalism, but this cross the A991 at Riverside (NX965663). woodland and parkland Dumfries, Criffel’s rolling prospect Sweetheart Abbey and turn R onto compact city actually grew around Roundabout onto Dock Street. terrain: Quiet country paths; some steep steps. is a conspicuous sight throughout Main Street (A710). Follow the its harbour from the 13th century Turn L onto Crichton Street , then roads and paths, with MapS: OS Explorer 313; much of the region’s eastern side. pavement to The Square, then go onwards. The RRS Discovery was climb by the Overgate Shopping some boggy sections. Landranger 54. Its 570m/1,870ft summit, and the L just before the New Abbey Corn built here in 1900 before setting Centre, swinging R onto High MapS: OS Explorer 313; GettinG there: Regular route onto it , grants exquisite Mill. Walk along the minor road sail for the Antarctic, and is now Street beside the Caird Hall, Landranger 84. ScotRail Services link Dundee views across the Solway Firth to towards a millpond, turning L docked at Discovery Point. During named after Sir James Caird, who GettinG there: Regular with Glasgow, Edinburgh the bigger, muscular Lake District just before it onto another minor the 19th century, Dundee’s mills amassed his fortune through the DGC Bus Service 372 runs and Aberdeen. The Scottish mountains. Criffel has enjoyed road, which is signposted for the produced vast quantities of jute trade. Bear L and walk along from Dumfries to New Citylink Bus M92 runs from great popularity for more than Waterloo Monument (NX962662). sailcloth and jute, with the textile Reform Street, passing the statue Abbey (✆ 0871 200 2233, Edinburgh and Aberdeen to a millennium, as it was held in industry employing over 30% of of Desperate Dan (the famous www.travelinescotland.com). Dundee, and Scottish Citylink immense reverence by the Vikings, 2. Follow this quiet, narrow road Dundee’s 90,000 residents. More character from The Dandy, which eatinG & drinkinG: Abbey Bus M9 from Glasgow and who named it Kraka-fjell – Norse as it climbs gradually away from recently, DC Thomson became a was published in Dundee), to the Cottage Tearoom, New Abbey Aberdeen. National Express for Raven’s Hill, the raven being New Abbey, with Criffel’s slopes major employer, and celebrated stunning McManus Art Gallery. (✆ 01387 850377, www. 28 bus connects Dundee city the sacred bird of Scandinavia. ahead. The road swings sharply L, publications such as The Beano abbeycottagetearoom.com). centre to Discovery Point With much of Galloway still then R, and continues for another and The Scots Magazine are 2. Turn L onto Meadowside, SleepinG: Criffel Inn, (✆ 0871 200 2233, www. sparsely populated, Criffel’s 750m/½ mile to reach a footbridge internationally popular – especially passing the Howff Cemetery 2 The Square, New Abbey travelinescotland.com). commanding vantage point (NX957655). with the Scottish diaspora. Today (NO402303), where Greyfriars’ (✆ 01387 850305, eatinG & drinkinG: Lots of is pretty similar to what the the major industries are gone, but Monastery used to stand. After www.criffel-inn.co.uk). options, but recommended Vikings (and the raven) enjoyed 3. Cross the bridge onto a track Dundee is still a vibrant city. Its the monastery burnt down in ViSitor inforMation: for food is The Byzantium, all those centuries ago. The signposted for Criffel. Go R at a streets are littered with wonderful the 16th century, Mary, Queen Dumfries TIC, 64 Whitesands 11 Hawkhill, Dundee six-foot Douglas’s Cairn adorns fork beside a cottage and, at architecture, while Dundee Law of Scots gifted the land to the (✆ 01387 253862, www.visit (✆ 01382 221946, www. the summit of Criffel. Although the next cottage, bear R onto grants a breathtaking view across City of Dundee. Turn R onto dumfriesandgalloway.co.uk). byzantiumrestaurant.com). probably no more than a marker a narrow, wooded path. At a the city and along the River Tay. Constitution Road, walk by the
Guidebook: Dumfries SleepinG: Shaftesbury cairn, a story alleges that one junction, turn R and follow a track This scenic city tour also visits University of Abertay, then
and Galloway: 40 Coast Lodge, 1 Hyndford Street, of the Douglases – the Earls of as it climbs gradually, swinging L , Mills Observatory (above), the UK’s through an underpass beneath
& Country Walks by J Fallis Dundee (✆ 01382 669216, ▲ ▲ ▼
then R. As it bends R again, only full-time public observatory. the A991. Go R up steps back ▼ Morton – is buried beneath it. 53-54 walk38 ramblers route SCOTLAND.indd 1 53-54 walk38 ramblersrouteSCOTLAND_rev1.indd 2 Ordnance Surveymapping©Crowncopyright.AM34/08 Ordnance Surveymapping©Crowncopyright.AM34/08 Continued... 4 START 3 (£6.99, Pocket Mountains, 1 FINISH ISBN 978 1907025037). LOCAL RAMBLERS GROUP: 2 Dumfries & District Ramblers (✆ 01387 263754, www. 6 dumfriesramblers.com). 3 continue straight on along a 5 woodland path, turning R into a conifer fi rebreak (NX956647). Here, the path becomes boggy 2 and climbs steeply south, alongside a wall, up the lower slopes of Knockendoch. Once 6 above the tree line, the muddy path continues beside the wall to arrive at a fence. The wall Map not to scale. START 1 swings away to your L here, but Representation of FINISH you should continue straight on OS Explorer MAP 313 1:25,000 through a gap in the fence and www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk climb the steep path through heathery slopes. Sumptuous views open out along the Nith Estuary 4 and to the Moffat Hills. The Continued... To download this route and hundreds of others, path then zigzags steeply up visit www.ramblers.org.uk/routes Knockendoch to reach its summit www. shaftesburyhotel.net). cairn (NX955631). Other options on the TIC which was opened in 1935 having website (below). descend some steep steps to cross 4. The path swings southwest been funded by the estate of local VISITOR INFORMATION: a single-track road. Continue away from the cairn to cross a linen manufacturer John Mills. Dundee TIC, Discovery onto a path that descends by boggy plateau. Follow it south Map not to scale. 5 Representation of Quay (✆ 01382 527527, West Law Allotments onto Law then south-southeast, climbing Steps – a lane that drops over 6. Retrace your steps back to Scott OS Landranger www.angusanddundee.co.uk). more steeply as the crest beneath MAP 84 1:50,000 Street and bear R onto Balgay GUIDEBOOK: Angus and several side streets to reach Criffel is reached. Keep an eye www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk Road, passing Victoria Park. At Dundee by James Carron Lochee Road. Turn L, then R onto on the path here, especially in Blackness Road, turn L and walk (£6.99, Pocket Mountains, Tullideph Road. Turn L at City misty conditions, as it can be down by a line of tenements, with ISBN 978 1907025150). Road, then R along Pentland indistinct. Follow the path over great views to Dundee Law. When To download this route and hundreds of others, LOCAL RAMBLERS: Dundee Avenue to Scott Street, where a low, ruined wall to reach Blackness Road swings R onto visit www.ramblers.org.uk/routes & District Ramblers (✆ 01382 a R turn leads into Balgay Park. Douglas’s Cairn on Criffel’s summit Bellfi eld Street (NO392302), fork 459543, www.ramblers.co.uk/ Opened in 1871 by the Earl of (NX957619), with a trig point a L and continue to Hawkhill. Turn gate and over a track, then bear groups). Dalhousie, the park was intended short distance to the west. The track signposted for New Abbey. L then L again onto Horsewater L to cross another fi eld. At the primarily for local mill workers to views over the Solway Coast and Turn L and walk along this track, help improve their health. Wynd, then R onto Guthrie Street bearing L at a junction. At a far corner, exit by another gate onto Constitution Road, which across the Galloway landscape (to the L is the Scottish Jute second junction, turn R down a from where a grassy track passes then climbs steeply onto Upper are exceptional. 5. After a few metres, turn R and Museum). Follow Guthrie Street, path and pass through two gates through a gap in a wall. Beyond a Constitution Street, culminating follow a path (signposted Mills then cross West Marketgait to Loch Kindar (NX964645). gate, cross another fi eld and go at Kinghorne Road. 5. Retrace your steps a short onto Ward Road and then through a fi nal gate to return to Observatory) as it climbs steadily distance, then bear R onto an through woodland. At a broad Meadowside. Turn R onto Reform 6. Walk along a fi eld edge beside the outward-bound track. Turn 3. Turn R, then L onto Law Road. indistinct path and descend track go L , keeping R at a fork, Street and retrace your steps the loch and, at its foot, swing L R , cross the footbridge and make Go fi rst L (still Law Road) and walk northeast over more wet ground then L at the next fork. Continue back to Discovery Point. to continue along the fi eld edge your way back to New Abbey. past allotments and a path on to pick up the Craigrockall Burn to Mills Observatory (NO377307), Route devised by Keith Fergus beside woodland. Go through a Route devised by Keith Fergus your R. Go R at the next path (NX959629). Descend a path and climb steeply up steps onto east alongside the burn into Dundee Law (NO392312). woodland, where a fi rm path is IN ASSOCIATION eventually picked up. Continue IN ASSOCIATION WITH 4. Walk around the front of the WITH to a crossroads. Go straight 11/02/2013 14:00 war memorial, then turn L and SUPALITE II GTX ahead and down to a broad HILLWALKER II GTX