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A walk · Loch Doon

Loch Doon – A Castle Moved Stone by Stone

About 3.7 miles on foot.

Loch Doon Castle Loop

Loch Doon Castle was built on an island in the late 1200s and now stands on the shore, where it was rebuilt stone by stone in the 1930s.

The Castle Loop is a walk of about three and three-quarter miles from its car park, in open country beside a long grey loch under bare, rounded hills. It takes two hours.

Time
About two hours: about 3.7 miles.
The path
Open moor and loch shore: wear boots.
Where to start
The car park at Loch Doon Castle, where the loop starts and ends.
When to go
April to September for the ospreys and the long light. In winter the loch is open to the wind and the days are short: be back at the car by 3.30pm from November to January, and leave the loch road alone in ice or snow.
Dogs
On a lead near livestock, with bags for waste: take it away with you.
Children
A castle to walk into through its arch, and a shore of boulders.

The walk

Leave the car in the car park at Loch Doon Castle and look round the ruin first. Its wall of squared stone stands on the grass above the loch, with a pointed arch for a gateway. The castle was built in the late 1200s, by Robert the Bruce or by his father, on an island out in the loch.

When the water level was changed in the 1930s, the whole of it was moved to the shore, stone by stone. The Castle Loop sets off from here, a round of about three and three-quarter miles that takes two hours. This is open country: heather, rough grass and granite boulders along the shore, conifer plantations on the slopes and bare, rounded hills over the water.

A pair of ospreys nests at the loch in spring and summer, after a journey of 3,000 miles from West Africa. The Biosphere's leaflet has the map of the way round. Keep a dog on a lead near livestock, and carry waterproofs whatever the forecast.

If it rains

There's no shelter on the moor or the shore. In heavy rain or low cloud, look round the castle and keep the loop for a better day.

Before you go

  1. Book accommodation nearby

    If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.

    Talli House36 miles awayTalli HouseSleeps 4Wren's NestPortpatrickWren's NestSleeps 2Rose Blair Lodge38 miles awayRose Blair LodgeSleeps 2Heritage Coachman Lodge38 miles awayHeritage Coachman LodgeSleeps 4
Find out more

For further reading, before you go.