Named for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, the Queen's Way runs nineteen miles from Newton Stewart to New Galloway across the middle of Galloway Forest Park. It is the best wildlife drive in southern Scotland, and almost all of it can be seen from lay-bys — which makes it unusually good with small children, or with anyone who cannot walk far.
The stops, driving from the Girvan side
- Kirroughtree (3 miles) — visitor centre, café, waymarked walks, mountain-bike trails and a red squirrel hide.
- The Wild Goat Park (8 miles) — a fenced hillside where a herd of shaggy, long-horned British Primitive goats lives semi-wild. You can usually see them from the lay-by, and they are most children's favourite thing on the road.
- Murray's Monument and the Grey Mare's Tail (9 miles) — a granite obelisk on a knoll to Alexander Murray, a shepherd's son from this glen who taught himself languages and became Professor of Oriental Languages at Edinburgh. A short steep path leads up to it, and the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall is a ten-minute walk on a boardwalk from the same car park.
- The Red Deer Range (10 miles) — a large enclosure with a hide and viewing platform where the park's red deer can be watched year round. Closest in the autumn rut, and rangers run guided feeding walks in summer.
- Clatteringshaws (13 miles) — the loch, Bruce's Stone and the Raiders' Road forest drive. No facilities now, as the visitor centre has closed.
- New Galloway (19 miles) — a pretty small town on Loch Ken with cafés, and the end of the road.
Practical notes
Allow half a day with stops. Return the same way, or make a longer loop south by the A713 and A75.
There is very little in the way of facilities along the route once past Kirroughtree — take food and drink, and use the toilets at Kirroughtree before setting off. Mobile signal is poor to non-existent.
The whole road lies inside the Gold Tier Dark Sky Park, so if you can time the return for after dusk on a clear moonless night, do — see stargazing. It forms the eastern half of our Galloway forest loop from Girvan.
