The A714 from Girvan climbs through the Stinchar valley and Barrhill, over the empty moors, and drops down to Newton Stewart on the River Cree — about fifty minutes of road with almost nothing on it. The drive is half the reason to go.
The town itself is a pleasant, practical place rather than a tourist one, and that is precisely its use: it is where you buy things, fill up and eat before or after a day in the hills.
Why it matters to a visitor
Newton Stewart is the main gateway to Galloway Forest Park, the largest forest park in Britain. From here:
- Kirroughtree is three miles east — a 7stanes mountain-biking centre with a café, bike hire, waymarked walks and a red squirrel hide that is among the easiest places in Britain to see them.
- Glen Trool and Bruce's Stone are about twenty minutes north, for the loch circuit and the path up the Merrick, the highest hill in southern Scotland.
- The Queen's Way, the A712 east towards New Galloway, runs past the Red Deer Range, the Wild Goat Park and Clatteringshaws.
In the town
A long main street with supermarkets, independent shops, cafés, pubs and fuel — the last reliable supplies before the forest. There is a museum, and the Cree running through it is a noted salmon and sea-trout river; see river fishing. The old bridge and the riverside make a pleasant half-hour if you are waiting on the weather.
Newton Stewart Golf Club is a parkland course on the edge of town.
Onward
Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town, is seven miles south — the obvious pairing, and the wet-weather alternative if the hills are in cloud. Beyond it the Machars peninsula runs down to Whithorn and the Isle of Whithorn.
It features on the Galloway forest loop day trip from Girvan, and it is worth knowing that the last fuel and shops before the forest are here.
