Travel Guides

Walking the Galloway Hills : 35 wild mountain walks including the Merrick

by Ronald Turnbull

A trusted Cicerone guidebook to Scotland's best-kept secret The Galloway Hills are southern Scotland's vast, roadless granite wilderness—a landscape of heather ridges, peat bogs, dark lochs and ancient oakwood that rivals the Highlands for rugged natural beauty, yet sees only a fraction of the footfall. At their heart stands the Merrick, the highest point in the Southern Uplands at 843m, alongside 27 other tops over 2000ft and the UK's first designated dark sky park. This comprehensive guidebook covers 35 walks across the Galloway Hills, including 34 day walks and one 82km long-distance route. Walks range from 4 to 33km (2 to 20 miles) and are graded 1 to 5 to suit all experience levels, taking between 2 and 11 hours. Routes span Glen Trool, the Awful Hand, Loch Doon, the Glenkens and Talnotry, with terrain ranging from well-laid paths to rugged, pathless granite ground. Every walk is accompanied by 1:50,000 OS mapping and downloadable GPX files—essential for navigating remote terrain where paths are faint or absent. Bothy information and longer expedition options allow routes to be combined into multi-day backpacking trips, with a dedicated appendix covering bothy locations across the area. Throughout, you'll discover rich historical and natural context: the area's geology, wildlife, ancient oakwood, Galloway Forest Park and its remarkable medieval history as a centre of guerrilla warfare. For experienced hillwalkers seeking a lesser-known alternative to the Highland crowds, this is the ultimate companion for exploring one of Scotland's most rewarding and underrated hiking areas.

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