Walking around Kirkcudbright
Balcary Heughs.  Woodland, coastal & farmland tracks.	3½ or 5½ miles round trip. Allow 2 hours.

Through woods onto open cliffs & coast.

Mostly easy/moderate, except care needed on exposed cliff-top paths.

This coastal route is a popular walk; being open and exposed above the heughs (cliffs), and providing  some excellent viewpoints particularly over the Solway to the Cumbrian coast and hills. Refer to Ordnance Survey map Landranger 84.  From Kirkcudbright follow the A711 for 13 miles to Auchencairn.  In the village, just before the bridge, turn right along a minor road leading to Balcary.  Follow this narrow coastal road for a further 2 miles to its end, where there is a roadside car park, with an Information Board.  (NX820495). Leave transport here. Walk up to the road corner (at the turning down to the shore), to a signed footway pointing to Balcary Point & Rascarrel.  Follow this, through the gate, along a short track, and then emerge into a field by kissing gate. Signs indicate the two routes and cliff top dangers. Carry on towards Balcary Point, by gate into the field and follow the grass path.  There are views of Ben Gairn and Balcary Bay.

Leave the field by another gate (NX825495), and enter a deciduous wood, following a track adjacent to the garden of "The Tower". The path becomes narrow and muddy when wet.  Follow the path above "The Boathouse" (once a lifeboat station), and emerge onto a gorse-covered hillside and the cliff path, with views back to Hestan Island and Criffel, and across the Solway to the Lake District. To avoid the exposed cliff top path, return from the point where the path approaches the edge of the high cliffs. Continuing, the path is rockier, and follows a fence on the right.  The walk rises up above the heughs to Balcary Point (NX829493), where a variety of birds congregate on the cliff faces. At a gate, there is a shortcut, way-marked on the right back to Balcary.  However, continue on the undulating path, close to the cliff edge, where there are one or two seats set out for walkers to enjoy the seaward views.

Follow by a wall to near Airds Point, before turning down towards the lower ground to the corner of a walled field .  Carry on along the grassy path for ¾ mile, between the wall and the low cliffs, before dropping down to the shoreline.  The shoreline path, above high water, is soft in places. Continue along to four timber chalets (NX810484).

Pass behind the chalets to continue to Loch Mackie and Balcary.   (Pass in front of them to extend the route to Rascarrel (see below). The path to the Loch goes up to a gate into a gorse-covered field, and continues along a track to another gate into rough pasture. Within a 100 yards or so, Loch Mackie is sighted. (NX808489).

Pass through the stone dyke by a kissing gate to reach Loch Mackie, turn right along by the dyke, and follow the farm track back towards Balcary (1mile). Walk through the open moorland, where there are good  views on the left across to Ben Gairn and Criffel. Pass thro' another two gates, by a derelict cottage near Airds Cottage on the right.  Where the track forks, carry straight on along the unmade road thro' open pasture where cattle may be grazing, passing over a cattle grid, and head down back to Balcary and the car park. The walk is equally enjoyable when made in reverse. It can also be extended by an extra 2 miles by  passing in front of the chalets, for Rascarrel Bay and  Rascarrel, and turning up the minor road.  In ½ mile, turn right into Rascarrel Moss (woodland), and follow the marked path to Loch Mackie and back en-route.                                            top