Loch Trool Trail

The Martyr's Tomb, near the start of the walk, is a headstone within stone walls bearing the inscription "Here lie James and Robert Duns, Thomas and John Stevenson, James McClive and Andrew McCall who were surprised at prayer". The people described were Presbyterians or Covenanters (who took their name from the National Covenant signed in Edinburgh in 1638 and whose numbers were strongest in southwest Scotland) persecuted by Charles I and his Catholic followers.

The walk passes through a campsite spread out in a park of oaks, then climbs through a larch plantation and 18th-century Scots pines. Looping around the high point called Torr, the route joins a lochside path leading to the Steps of Trool. Here in 1307 an English army was ambushed by King Robert the Bruce, whose men sent an avalanche of boulders down from Mulldonach to aid the campaign for Scottish independence (ultimately won at Bannockburn in 1314).

The path picks its way through big boulders flung by a lightning strike on a rock head above, offering clear views across the loch to Merrick (the highest hill in the Scottish Southern Uplands). Turning north and climbing steeply, the route passes through the ancient oak woods of Glenhead and Buchan (undisturbed SSSI woodlands coppiced until 1900 for tan bark and charcoal).

The Buchan Waterfall flows through three suspended pools in a deep rock ravine softened by green mosses. Shortly beyond is Bruce's Stone, overlooking the site of the Battle of Glen Trool and marking the start of a tough four-mile path to the summit of Merrick. From the stone and nearby rock bluffs, the splendour of the Galloway Hills can be admired before returning via Kenmure Moss.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.