Loch Brecbowie and Nick of the Loup
Distance: 7.22 miles Ascent: 1475 feet Difficulty: B+
Car Parking: at Stinchar Bridge, south of Straiton, take the road to the east to Loch Bradan, parking soon after the tarmacadam surface ends at the Forest Drive.
Walking along the Forest Drive towards the south, take the track at NX 41885 95880 to the east. The track is labelled "cycle track to Loch Doon". Shortly take a fairly indistinct track on the right (look out for a series of old wayposts indicating the route to follow) and walk up and over the smallish hills. About a half mile from the Forest Drive, you should reach a point where you can see the small loch Brecbowie. The going is fairly straightforward after this, over rough, but not difficult, terrain always generally in an east-by north direction, following the hilltops in order to reach the Nick of the Loup at NX 45840 97010. After descending to the valley floor, turn left to walk approx. north-by-east to reach the cycle track from Bradan to Loch Doon (mentioned above), Turn left here to walk back to your starting point.
I did this walk in mid December 2008. The day was dry with some sun and it was an ideal winter walk, lasting about 5 hours excluding lunch break. One of the concerns when hillwalking is about the ground conditions but this walk was very good, with only a few wet patches despite all the rain that has affected the area over the last few weeks or even months. Descending to the Nick of the Loup is mainly through long grass and tussocks until you reach the track along the fence which takes you out of the Nick, but did not provide much of a problem at this time of year.
One of the pleasures of this walk is that once you reach Craigbrock Hill, you can wander about as much as you like, heading roughly east and keeping towards Craiglee once it comes into sight. The views on this walk are excellent, despite the highest point being only 1500ft and you can see quite a few lochs (Doon, Bradan, Finlas, Riecawr, Macaterick, Brecbowie, Goosie and Ballochling) and many of the mountains that form the backbone of the Galloway Hills. This is a really lovely walk.