We’re spoilt for beautiful walks when it comes to Corsewall Estate Holiday Cottages and Dumfries and Galloway. There are lots of lovely trails around the estate and down to the shores of Loch Ryan. However, we explored a new one last month, which we’d been meaning to do for a long time – Portpatrick to Killantringan Lighthouse – which is the start of the Southern Upland Way. This is a lovely walk to do if you are staying at Cedar Lodge as you just have to step outside the door and you’re there. If you are staying at Corsewall Estate, Portpatrick is only about a 20 minute drive away.
Killantringan Lighthouse – on the Southern Upland Way
We drove over to Portpatrick, leaving a car at Killantringan on the way, so it was there for us when we reached the Lighthouse. You can carry on and do a full circular route back into Portpatrick along quiet country roads, which is about a 6 mile round trip. Call us lazy, but we felt that the 1.5 hour walk with the children would suffice on this occasion.
At the start of the Southern Upland Way
We had a hearty lunch in Portpatrick before climbing up the hill beside the harbour and heading south along the cliffs. We picked a beautifully sunny, but still quite cold, day and the views from every angle were spectacular. We could see for miles including the Mountains of Mourne and Belfast across on Ireland. It’s a very pretty time of the year to do this walk, with the bluebells and daffodils scattered along the walk and the trees in the distance bursting into colour.
The beautiful view looking back towards Portpatrick and the golf course
The first port of call was Laird’s Bay. It’s a very pretty beach, with a cave and a waterfall, which would have detained the children for hours had we not dragged them on.
Laird’s Bay – comes complete with a cave and waterfall
It’s a great beach for a picnic or swimming – preferable when the sea warms up though. The dogs found a ball and so they enjoyed chasing it endlessly into the sea.
The dogs enjoying a dip in the sea at Laird’s Bay
We then moved onto the next bay, which was more pebbly and then off up along the cliffs again before heading into fields with Killantringan Lighthouse in the distance.
Another beautiful beach along the Southern Upland Way
The walk then opened up as we walked across the hills towards our final destination. Although I’ve been to Killantringan lots of times before, coming at it from this angle meant we could see the Lighthouse’s orginal fog horn and part of a ship wreck, which I gather ran aground in the 1980s, which I hadn’t seen before.
The old fog horn beside Killantringan Lighthouse
We’ll certainly walk it again and next time I think we’ll go from the Lighthouse to Portpatrick and look forward to a the long lunch and a thirst quencher at the other end!