Route – Gatehouse of Fleet to Kirkcudbright to Borgue to Carrick Bay to Gatehouse of Fleet. For route map click here.
See route on Strava.
- Weather – fairly cloudy but bright and reasonably warm with light winds.
- Bike type – road bike
- Distance travelled – 25.29 miles
- Riding time – 1 hour 54 minutes
- Maximum speed – 31.1 mph
- Average speed – 13.3 mph
- Height climbed – 1290 feet
On day 4 of our summer holiday in Galloway, Dad and I were up reasonably early and drove the 20 miles or so to the picturesque little town of Gatehouse of Fleet. We parked on the appropriately named Fleet Street in the outskirts and set off on our bikes, cycling north-eastwards through the town centre for a short distance, crossing a bridge over the Water of Fleet before heading out of town on the B727 Old Military Road. Although it didn’t look it, our legs told us this road was suspiciously uphill as it turned the corner and took us back southwards with trees on both sides of the road. A mile or so later we turned left onto a very narrow country road which headed even more steeply uphill. The road had recently been covered with loose chippings so it wasn’t the most pleasant ride up the hill but we made it to the top soon enough. From there we could see the sea far way on the right – and that’s exactly where we were headed. But first we discovered we had some dangers to negociate on what should have been a lovely quiet road in the middle of nowhere. Tractors! And there was seemingly a constant stream of the massive
farm vehicles carrying trailers full of silage to and from the farm at the top of the hill. This was extremely annoying as each time a tractor flew around a corner, we had to move quickly over and stop on the grass verge to avoid being flattened. I would say this was the busiest and most dangerous road I’ve ever cycled on and it came as a bit of a relief when we finally made it down the other side of the hill and came to a junction with what was seemingly now only the second busiest road in the region – the A75!
We actually only cycled on the main road for about 20 yards before turning off onto another minor road (this one very quiet thankfully) and headed mainly downhill on our way to the coast. Eventually we came to another main road, the A755. Here we turned left and sped down the hill for a mile or so to Kirkcudbright, crossing over the impressive old bridge as we entered the harbour town. Kirkcudbright is a lovely town with a brilliant fish and chip shop but it was too early for a fish cake supper so we turned around and headed back over the bridge again. Then we took the next left onto the B727
and followed the signs for Cycle Route no.7 which took us right along the side of the River Dee estuary, giving us picturesque views back over the bay to Kirkcudbright. This road was quite windy and although there were no big hills, it was rather more up and down than you’d expect for a coastal road. It was also quite busy with traffic at times, though no tractors this time… After a while the road took us back inland and we reached a village called Borgue. There we turned left onto a much quieter, mostly single track road which seemed to take us mainly downhill as we headed back towards the coast again. The views over to the islands in the bay and the hills of Galloway far beyond
were quite nice. Eventually we arrived at a junction and went left at the sign for the beach and cycled the last mile or so along a bumpy narrow road down to Carrick Bay where we stopped for a snack and to enjoy the views from the beach. Carrick Bay is one the nicest beaches I’ve been to. It’s quite a stony beach but there’s lots of sand when the tide goes out. In fact, when we were there earlier in the holiday, the tide was right out and we were able to walk through the shallow water and mud flats all the way over to one of the islands. There’s also loads of rock pools there and this is the only beach where we’ve ever seen live prawns swimming about in the pools. As Dad discovered though, they are impossible to catch! He did catch a tiny crab though…
After the beach we headed back along to the junction and turned left onto the quiet road again. The road took us past many fields of cows and then we passed the Cream o’ Galloway visitor centre where we considered stopping for an ice cream but somehow or other, we managed to simply cycle past without filling our faces with a scoop or 2. Most unlike us… Soon enough we came to a long and straight section of narrow road with lots of long grass at the sides. There was a sign warning that the road was liable to flooding but thankfully, it was dry enough today and we didn’t have to do any swimming… Just before the road reached the busy A75 again, we turned left and followed the cycle route 7 signpost which took us off road onto a lovely smooth cycle path. It wasn’t smooth for long though as the path headed into the woods and turned into a rather less lovely
rough, slightly overgrown forest path. We kept going anyway but it was really quite bumpy and not at all suitable for our road bikes. Thankfully, we made it back to Gatehouse of Fleet without crashing or having any punctures. Actually, it was lucky we took the bumpy route as it meant we cycled right through the very impressive Cally Palace Hotel and Golf Course before heading back through the town to the car, so it turned out to be a rather nice way to end a very nice circular route.
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