This long but easy circular follows tracks and minor roads through oakwoods and open countryside, extending from the fringes of Gatehouse of Fleet to the coast at Sandgreen.
Minor roads, tracks and woodland paths.
None to start.
Cally Woods car park.
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The walk is described from the Cally Woods car park, where the Murray centre gives information on the deciduous woodland habitat. This point can be easily reached from Gatehouse of Fleet using the Garries Wood walk. Begin the walk by returning to the minor road from the car park and turning left along it. Keep straight on at the fork, ignoring a branch off to Cally Gardens, and continue until the road passes the front of the immensely grand Cally Palace Hotel - popular with golfers. The house was built in 1763 as the home of James Murray, sometime MP for Wigtownshire.
Continue past the front of the hotel as the road becomes a track and heads into the woods. It soon passes underneath the A75 and Laundry Cottage - as the name suggests once the laundry for the grand house. Keep straight on when the National Cycle Route goes off to the left, and then fork onto the right hand track to avoid passing too close to Cally Mains Farm. Beyond the agricultural buildings regain the tarred track and keep to the left of the farmhouse. The track becomes unsurfaced as it heads back into the oakwoods.
Ignore minor tracks heading off to the left and right, but when the main track goes left keep straight ahead on a track which keeps just inside the edge of the woodland, giving good views across the Fleet Estuary to the right. The woods are left behind at a gate; pass through this and continue along an oak-lined avenue to reach the Caravan Park at Sandgreen. Take the right fork amongst the caravans, and then at a five-way junction bear slightly right on a track towards the sea. Go past the red iron barrier as the track bends right to gain access to the sandy beach, and turn left across this.
At the far end of the beach head onto the grassy lane that leads past the green sign. This swings left to gain the public road via a vehicle barrier. Head straight on along the road, keeping to the tarmac as the road bends left at a junction. The road heads through pleasant dairy countryside; keep along it for 3km, ignoring a turning on the right, to reach the hamlet of Girthon. This rich landscape is the home of the Galloway Creamery. Around 600m after Girthon look out for where the National Cycle Route 7 turns left over a bridge; it is tarred as it heads across a field to enter the woods.
The cycleway bends right and becomes rougher once under the canopy of trees. When it bends left by a telegraph pole, turn right instead onto a footpath through the forest. Further on, look out for a fork off to the left - this leads to a Gothic folly which you can see through the trees. Otherwise the route keeps to the main path, soon passing under the A75 by a tunnel beside a burn. On the far side ignore an overgrown bridge and keep to the worn path which heads right. A yellow waymarked path soon heads off to the right - this is the 'cally-woods.shtml'>Cally Woods Coronation walk - which does lead back to the car park. However our quicker route continues directly ahead, passing a gate, an attractive cottage, and then the entrance to Cally Gardens. Continue ahead until the track rejoins the tarred lane from early in the walk, and then turn right along this to retrace your steps back to the start.
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