Our plan after leaving Gatehouse of Fleet was to drive up to Lauriston – taking the scenic route – northwards and take our time getting to Balmaha on the banks of Loch Lomond (cue song) but our plans were somewhat altered by events. The road to Lauriston was delightful and led (to our surprise) over upland that looked rather like moors, then through forests and was generally very scenic stopping only to let flocks of sheep with their new lambs roam across the roads and flow around the car. We were about a mile short of the A762 which we intended to join when we discovered two huge trees had fallen over the road and taken down power lines with them. We had no option but to drive all the way back to where we had come from – to the degree that we almost passed the hotel we were staying in.
After this long diversion we tried the main route and this had been less effected by the very strong winds that had accompanied a two day spell of storms. Everywhere we went we saw signs of storm damage to trees bit, thankfully, this was the last to actually stop us in our tracks. It has to be said, though, that it was a beautiful road and worth the attempt. It appeared radically different travelling the other way so it was more interesting backtracking than one might imagine.
Back on track again, after a long delay, we made some headway and managing to add Buzzards and Red Kites to our holiday list. We stopped off at the Galloway Activity Centre which was one of the few watering holes along the route up Loch Ken and were a little surprised to find that rather than being a resort for nice activity-minded middle class families it turned out to be more of a place where hyperactive delinquents were sent to drain them of some of their over-exuberance. I don’t think we saw many people that weren’t teenagers – except for their carer/handlers! Still we got a cup of tea and a loo stop and it was all quite amusing. The bad weather meant that the loch looked more like the North Sea so there wasn’t much going on on the surface!
Loch Ken goes on for nine miles and then becomes the Water of Ken for a few miles so we followed the banks of it for quite a while with the Forest of Galloway on our left in the distance. Everywhere there was evidence of the storms but eventually the wild environment gave way to the gentler landscapes of Ayreshire and we followed the A77 up to the outskirts of Irvine where we turned eastwards a bit and then headed north up through Paisley, over the Erskine Bridge and then along the A810 before joining up with the A809 which led us through the foothills of the Trossachs to Balmaha right on the edge of Loch Lomond. Here they were also clearing up the mess from the recent storms but our room turned out to be ok. We had imagined that we could sit out on the small astro-turfed balcony of our supposedly loch-side room at the Oak Tree Inn and look over the loch but it was far too cold, wet and windy ! I’m sure if it had been warm and sunny we would have loved the place because it was in a beatiful – if busy – location. We pitied the many Americans who were probably little consoled by the old adage that you don’t come to Scotland for the weather.
Apart from the Buzzards and Red Kites we only really saw the usual expected birds but the next day gave us more to be excited about
Bird Sightings : Dumfries to Loch Lomond 14th June 2018
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Red Kite | 3 |
| Common Buzzard | 4 |
| Common Wood Pigeon | 2 |
| Eurasian Collared Dove | 1 |
| Eurasian Magpie | 1 |
| Eurasian Jackdaw | 30 |
| Rook | 12 |
| Carrion Crow | 8 |
| Barn Swallow | 10 |
| Common House Martin | 6 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 2 |
| Eurasian Blackbird | 2 |
| Common Chaffinch | 3 |
| Eurasian Bullfinch | 1 |
| European Greenfinch | 1 |
| European Goldfinch | 3 |
| House Sparrow | 8 |