Alan Castle 
The Southern Upland Way 
Scotland’s Coast to Coast trail

The Southern Upland Way is Scotland’s coast-to-coast walk and the longest of the nation’s Great Trails. 215 miles long, it links the pretty harbour village of Portpatrick on the west coast with Cockburnspath, a little south of Dunbar, in the east. The walk is at times a strenuous one, crossing the remote high moorland of the Galloway Hills, Carsphairn range, Lowthers, Ettrick Hills and Lammermuirs, calling for competence, fitness and self-reliance.

This guide presents advice on how best to plan and tackle this challenging but highly rewarding journey. The waymarked trail is presented in fourteen stages of 9-19 miles and suggestions for a rest day exploring Moffat and its environs are also included. It is possible either to backpack, taking advantage of five bothies and unlimited wild camping possibilities, or to stay in towns and hill villages, B&Bs and inns (facilitated by vehicle pick-up to avoid excessively long walking days).

The guide covers all the practicalities, with tips on planning, transport, accommodation, luggage transfer and vehicle support services. Clear step-by-step route description is provided for each stage, accompanied by 1:50, 000 OS mapping and notes on local history and points of interest. A trek planner and useful contacts can be found in the appendices.

The Southern Upland Way showcases the wild beauty of southern Scotland, taking in rugged moorland, rolling hills, wooded river valleys, lochsides and coast, as well as some of the attractive border towns that scatter the region. There are also numerous historical sites, offering an insight into a fascinating past – from ancient cairns to bastles, Covenanters‘ memorials and literary connections – plus opportunities to visit local attractions, including Castle Kennedy Gardens, Wanlockhead Lead Mining Museum, Traquair House, Melrose Abbey and Thirlestane Castle.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Map key
Overview map
Route summary table

Introduction
The Southern Upland Way
West to east or east to west?
When to go
Ways of tackling the SUW
Luggage transfer and drop-off/pick-up services
Accommodation
Getting to and from the SUW
Planning and preparation
Equipment
Maps
Waymarking and navigation
Access in Scotland
Ticks
Completion certificates and SUW badges
A high-level alternative coast-to-coast route
Using this guide

The route
Stage 1 Portpatrick to Castle Kennedy
Stage 2 Castle Kennedy to New Luce
Stage 3 New Luce to Bargrennan
Stage 4 Bargrennan to the Glenkens
Stage 5 Across the Glenkens
Stage 6 The Glenkens to Sanquhar
Stage 7 Sanquhar to Dalveen Pass
Stage 8 Dalveen Pass to Beattock (Moffat)
Rest day – Moffat and environs
Stage 9 Beattock (Moffat) to Ettrick
Stage 10 Ettrick to Traquair (Innerleithen)
Stage 11 Traquair (Innerleithen) to Melrose
Stage 12 Melrose to Lauder
Stage 13 Lauder across the Lammermuir Hills to Longformacus
Stage 14 Longformacus to Cockburnspath

Appendix A Itinerary planner
Appendix B Bothies along the SUW
Appendix C Bibliography
Appendix D Useful contacts

Über den Autor

Ronald Turnbull was born in St Andrews, Scotland, into an energetic fellwalking family. His grandfather was a president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, and a more remote ancestor was distinguished as only the second climbing fatality in Snowdonia.

In 1995 Ronald won the Fell Running Association’s Long-distance Trophy for a non-stop run over all the 2000ft hills of Southern Scotland; his other proud achievements include the ascent of the north ridge of the Weisshorn and a sub-2hr Ben Nevis race. He enjoys multi-day treks, through the Highlands in particular, and has made 21 different coast-to-coast crossings of the UK. He has also slept out, in bivvy bag rather than tent, on over 80 UK summits. Outside the UK he likes hot, rocky areas of Europe, ideally with beaches and cheap aeroplanes. Recently he achieved California’s 220-mile John Muir Trail and East Lothian’s 45-mile John Muir Way in a single season, believing himself the first to have achieved this slightly perverse double. He has also started trying to understand the geology of what he’s been walking and climbing on for so long.

Ronald lives in the Lowther Hills of Dumfriesshire, and most of his walking, and writing, takes place in the nearby Lake District and in the Scottish Highlands. His recent books include The Book of the Bivvy, and walking/scrambling guides Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, The Cairngorms and Ben Nevis & Glen Coe, as well as Three Peaks Ten Tors a slightly squint-eyed look at various UK challenge walks. He has nine times won Outdoor Writers & Photographers Guild Awards for Excellence for his guidebooks, outdoor books (including Book of the Bivvy), and magazine articles. He has a regular column in Lakeland Walker and also writes in Trail, Cumbria and TGO (The Great Outdoors). His current, hopelessly ambitious, project is to avoid completing the Munros for at least another 20 years.