Clatteringshaws is a hydro-electric reservoir created in the 1930s on the Black Water of Dee, twelve miles west of New Galloway on the Queen's Way. It sits in the quiet heart of Galloway Forest Park, and it is the darkest, emptiest and — for stargazers — the most important place in it.
Bruce's other stone
Most people know the Bruce's Stone above Loch Trool. There is a second one here: a boulder beside the loch where Robert the Bruce is said to have rested after the Battle of Raploch Moss in 1307. The Trool stone gets the visitors and the better view; this one gets the quiet.
The Raiders' Road
A ten-mile forest drive along the Black Water of Dee runs from near Clatteringshaws to Bennan, following an old cattle-rustlers' route and named for S.R. Crockett's novel The Raiders. It is a gravel forest road, seasonal and usually charged, with the Otter Pool — a good swimming and picnic spot — along the way. Check it is open before relying on it.
The dark sky
This is the point for many visitors. Clatteringshaws is generally reckoned the darkest accessible spot in the Galloway Dark Sky Park, which is itself Gold Tier and among the two darkest sites in the UK. On a clear moonless night the Milky Way is overwhelming.
It is also the site proposed for the rebuilt Scottish Dark Sky Observatory, replacing the one near Dalmellington destroyed by fire in 2021 — planned, but not open, so do not build a trip around it. See stargazing.
Getting there
Over an hour from Girvan, via Newton Stewart and the A712. Take food, fuel up first, and expect no mobile signal. Part of the Galloway forest loop.
