Susan and Linda's Big Talking Head Stane Adventure.
21st February 2015
Start Location - For this walk we headed from Loch Ettrick along the road to Ae Village, past the Gubhill road end and down the next road off to the left (see picture of signpost), we took this road and followed it down through the forest past the exhibition of machinery and parked up in one of the bays almost opposite Craigshields Outdoor Centre. Grid Ref NX 985 934. At the time of writing I know that there are parking charges in the forest and I have been told that tickets are being handed out for non payment. Please contact Forestry Commission for advice on parking other than the official car park. Permits are available from the Forestry Comm. which enable you to use Ae, Dalbeattie and Mabie.
We carried on down the fire road to the bridge and crossed over. Grid Ref NX 985 934 bearing left we continue on this road until we reached the Stane itself. I've got to admit this was our third attempt at finding the Stane. It is dead easy once you know how.
Total Distance - 6 miles approx.
Surface - fire road all the way.
What did we see - windfarms, stunning and varied scenery, mountain bikers and a short but very intense snow blizzard.
Susan's rating - a generally easy walk however it is steadily uphill all the way there, but that makes for downhill all the way back
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| Taken from the opposite side. Showing the road we came along. |
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| The Bridge at the end of the road. Turned up left. |
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| Followed the sign |
It was about here that the road started to climb quite steadily. I spied some runners over the other side of the valley. It's amazing how many different activities take place, but today was quite quiet probably due to the weather we had been having.
Following the road we made sure to continue climbing until we came to a sharp bend where we kept going up turning right which took us back in the direction we had come albeit on a higher road. If you look at a map the Head Stane is situated almost directly above Craigshields. Perhaps they should just cut a road straight uphill lol.
Carrying on up, looking back towards Queensberry. Linda does not like Windfarms and had a good moan about them on the way up and on the way back down.
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| Grid Ref NX 987 928 |
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| Linda was elated to finally reach the Stane - at our third attempt. Now we want to collect all 7Stanes. |
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| The view from just past the Stane. |
After having a rather nice little picnic at the Stane in the brilliant sunshine we headed back down. On the way it got decidedly chilly and I stopped to put on my jacket. A few minutes later I was extremely pleased I did. In the photo below you can clearly see the weather starting to close in on us and within minutes it was a full blown blizzard. On an adventure walk I always carry my backpack in which I have full body waterproofs, a first aid kit, spare warm top and various other bits and pieces which may be handy in an emergency. (See kit section for backpack photos).
Had another wee side stop on the way down, Kona had a splash about in the ice cold water. There's always something to explore in the forest, all the seasons are different, it's never the same on each visit.
On our way out of the forest and I got Linda to stop the car so I could snap this picture of how the weather had changed, from blizzard to stunning sunshine. What is it they say about Scottish Weather "If you don't like it, wait five minutes" or "four seasons in on day".
We are now on a mission to visit all the Stanes so more adventures to come no doubt.
