The start may be in an unpromising commercial plantation, but this circuit through Knockman Wood turns oat to be a delight, with semi-natural oakwoods interspersed with more open ground. The route visits a neolithic chambered cairn as well as the outlines of archaeological remains from medieval times.
Tracks and paths, waymarked.
None to start; bus to Newton Stewart 2km away.
Car park within Knockman Wood.
Turn off the road up the track alongside Boreland Lodge; there are double gates but you can drive through as long as you close them behind you. Follow the forest track until it reaches the car park. The walk is waymarked in yellow throughout; there's also a shorter blue loop, and a linear route (red) which links with further along the Cree road. Take the left hand gate from the parking area to follow a grassy track which initially climbs through the spruce plantations. Eventually these are left behind and replaced by attractive native woodland.
Continue up the track until a marker post (all colours) indicates where to fork left. The path soon meets the green track again - this time go straight across. Keep ahead (marker post) when another path goes off right. Eventually a wooden bench carved with the creatures of the forest is reaced.
Continue between an old wall on your left and woods on your right. Soon the Neolithic chambered cairn is seen just to the left of the path; there's a rough path around it.
Back on the main path, ignore a turning off left before the route reaches its highest point, and then begins to descend through an area of recovering ancient oak woodland. The delightful old grassy path winds through rocks and tree trunks enrobed by lush mosses and lichens; watch for the rare birds and butterflies that inhabit the coppiced woodland.
Eventually the route bears right near the lower edge of the woods, and then crosses a more open area. The route passes the remains of an old corn drying kiln dating from the 16th - 17th centuries. Continue to a path junction, then turn left (yellow marker). The route now passes the remains of the settlement of Clauchrie, which was in ruins by 1852. There are views towards the distant Cairnsmore of Fleet. Keep right at a junction (waymarked), soon passing through plantations and eventually arriving back at the car park.
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