I had a few hours off this afternoon, not enough for a long run, so I took a route round some of my favourite localish roads. I think I’ve described most of this route before, but I took some new photos today.
Home to Castle Douglas, then up the Ayr road as far as Townhead of Greenlaw, then turned left towards Laurieston. I stopped at Glenlochar bridge to look at the sunlit River Dee, swollen with the recent rains.
Then on to Laurieston village, and took the Gatehouse road through Laurieston Forest:
Emerging from the forest, the road climbs steadily across moorland, with wide hill views:
From the top of the pass, there’s a fine view southwards to the Isle of Man:
And westwards across the Fleet Valley towards Cairnsmore of Fleet:
Last week I posted a photo from my Loch Doon trip showing a modern reproduction of a 15th or 16th century tower house. Here’s a photo I took today of a real one: Rusko Tower in the Fleet Valley.
From Gatehouse of Fleet, I headed across country to Kirkcudbright, viewed here across the river:
Passing through Kirkcudbright, the homeward road climbs up with a fine view back over Kirkcudbright Bay:
And a mile or two further on is the Dundrennan army firing range, with its entertaining direction sign to ‘Camp HQ’, which always makes me smile. Just how camp it is is not explained - a sort of military Village People, I suppose - but it’s good to be warned…
Total mileage was only about 60 miles, so never more than 30 miles from home, but a good range of roads and scenery for an afternoon’s run.