Wigtownshire Ramblers-Clints of Dromore Feb 2010

It's Saturday the 27th 0f February 2010 and todays walk is a six and a bit miles sculpture trail over the Clints of Dromore north of Creetown.
After a mix up of the walk start location,ten of us set out.
Heading north east past the converted Gatehouse of Fleet railway station,we enter the Cairnsmore of Fleet Nature Reserve at New Rusco.
The forest track at this point is along the old railway line towards the viaduct.
'Clints' in Scotland,Cumbria and certain other hilly parts of the UK refer to rocky outcrops.
This is a picture with a backdrop of the 'Clints' I took last April at a Birds of Prey show. Blog here
Birds of Prey

There are plenty of information boards about.At this point we leave the railway track and zig zag down towards Dromore.
A duckboard walkway gets us over a boggy section...
...and we reach the Nature Reserve Visitors Centre.
Inside is a very informative and well laid out display showing the history,geology and wildlife of the area.There's a comprehensive P.D.F available to download at The Story of Cairnsmore of Fleet National Nature Reserve

Now we're heading for the viaduct.As well as the Falconry display, I think I've blogged the viaduct before,but i've no idea what i tagged it as so i cant link to it.It's an age thing i think !
There's new additional diplay boards,and a carved seat in a drystane wall enclosure since i was last here.We came here one warm summer day when a couple of the grankids were in the river,and did not want to leave.There's a little sandy spot like a mini beach just back from the viaduct,and the kids just love it.
Now our walk leader directs us to some old ruins where we find the first of the sculptures.
There are five in total,and we see three of them on this walk.They've been created by the Sculptor Matt Baker with additional poetry by Mary Smith
This one's called 'Heart' with the location clue 'twix viaduct and forestry,we lived here once.
Now we're back on the rail track and heading south.
Up in the rocks in a cut out length of track,we come across another of the sculptures.This one's called 'Ocean'and the clue here is 'from the viaduct to where munitions trains thundered through the cut,you're on the right track !'

Now crossing over a stile we begin the climb up to the clints.
Gaining height we look down on the visitors centre,with the Gatehouse road snaking over the distant hills...
...and the viaduct looking much smaller from up here.
A zoom makes it bigger.

From up here now we can see the Cumbrian Hills in one direction,and the Mull of Galloway in another,which is quite a surprise since there's still a lot of cloud about.

Now atop the first of the clints we see our third sculpture.This one's called 'Hush'and the clue here is 'past Ocean,over the stile,venture up where the ravens call and look down upon the inbye'
Taking shelter from the wind,we have lunch here.

After lunch our walk undulates over the northern side of the clints.Our walk leader points out features of Cairnsmore looming above us.The going from now becomes tussocky and boggy.
These goats don't give us a second glance.
Heading onto the boggy lower slopes of Craig Hill,we now follow the forest edge until we reach a stile which will take us through a forest ride down to the forest road...
...with just a kilometre or so to go,crossing the Moneypool burn back to the cars.
My boots leaked today,but it didn't make this walk any less interesting.
It was more tiring than i expected,having been up the 'Clints' before.But that's probably down to the spongy terrain today.