Wigtownshire Ramblers-Talnotry

It's Saturday the 22nd of November and todays walk is about 8 miles in the Galloway Forest Park.

We meet up at Talnotry car park just off the Queensway.I think there's twenty walkers today.Curly's coming along as well.

The first part of the walk takes us past a tumbling burn on a path upwards through the forest.
Round here walkers and mountain bikers share these paths,so our walk leader and deputy are on the alert.

After climbing steadily and bearing south west, the path levels out and we get a lovely view over the treetops to Craignelder.

Time to let the group reassemble...

...and enjoy the views.

We continue in the same general direction until we reach the Loch of the Lowes.There's a more well known Loch of the Lowes in Perthshire.It's a Scottish Wildlife Trust Reserve and has a couple of Ospreys that return every year.

Time for another break and picture calls for the photographers.

I guess i didn't take this one...

...but i'll try and get the whole loch in this one.Another stitch.

Once we're round the loch we've done a 360 degree turn and are now heading north east.Here we get our first view of Murray's Monument and Craigdews hill.

Our next point of interest is this adit.It's on the map as a 'Shaft(Dis)',but some local ramblers thought it had been a lead mine.I found this passage on the internet,although i can't be sure it refers to this site.

Talnotry nickel mine consists of a series of workings and dumps at the southern tip of a diorite intrusion into greywacke and black shale. The dumps contain good specimens of high grade ore which, in addition to pyrrhotite and niccolite, contain many interesting mineral phases on a microscopic scale. This locality affords the opportunity to study the relationship of sulphide mineralisation to igneous intrusion and yields nickel ore of special mineralogical interest.

I also found on Mindat.org that it contains Argentopentlandite,Matildite,Pyrite,Quartz and Skutterudite ? I recognise Pyrite and Quartz-don't ask me about the others.

Lots of time for another break here.It's crisp and cold today,but because the sun keeps breaking through,smiles keep breaking out.

Now we reach Black Loch and the 'Eye'.
This from Dumfries and Galloways Natural History Department.
Standing around 8 metres high this perfect spire is made from red-earthen tiles, showing their rough broken edge on the outside. Once you are standing beside it you should soon realise why it’s creator Colin Rose has called it the ‘Eye’!..


..There's a viewing hole drilled straight through the structure.

It's a lot more pleasurable...

...taking pictures of smiling faces.

Time for lunch.

Once refreshed we do a short loop...

...coming back along the southern shore of Black Loch.We retrace our steps a short way before reaching the Grey Mares Tail burn.

Here our walk leader talks poetically about the surprises to watch out for on the next part of the walk.(This picture is another stitching together of two shots.Enlarge it to see one of our group turned into a ghostly apparition.Eerie!)

The surprises turned out to be confectionary hidden among the dry stanes.This is part of the 'Art in the Forest' project.

This again from D & G's Natural History.
Hidden in an old sheep stell is the ‘Quorum’. This is a group of stone heads carved from local material and set into the walls of this enclosure. Created by Matt Baker and Doug Cocker a few years ago these heads were just the start of a 3-year project called ‘Art in the Galloway Forest Park’.

Now over the 'Foot Loup' between Garmel and Craigdews we've a great view of where the Grey Mares burn runs into the Palnure.

There's no little brown trout spotted today.

This is the lower of the Grey Mares tail waterfalls.

Now we're climbing up the path to Murrays Monument.The path back to Talnotry car park branches off before the top,so quite a number of the group waited at the fork having climbed up a number of times previously-myself included.

Here Craigdews Hill stands out really prominent.On previous visit here,i saw a two of the biggest ravens ever swooping from the crags.
Hey!,Who's the guy with the white hair?Somebody tagging along!?

It's possible there may be a few old goats in this picture.Well that is the wild goat park over there.

After the last ramblers descend from 'Murrays' it's just a short walk back to the cars.
Thanks to Scoop for the additional pictures(They're the ones with distinguished looking grey haired chap in)
A very enjoyable walk in the best of company once again.