📌 Auchencairn, Dumfries & Galloway
★★★
This rocky section of coastline south of Dalbeattie has a history of unusual dealings. At the start of the walk, Balcary Bay Hotel’s huge underground cellars were reputedly used to store illegal goods from smugglers. Meanwhile, isolated Hestan Island is visible from the first section of the walk and used to be home to a couple who manufactured church organs and rowed them ashore for delivery – just about the most impractical set up you could imagine. Today the focus is on agriculture, with the rugged clifftops left alone again for the enjoyment of walkers and wildlife.
📷 Chronological photo guide
Early wooded section 
Hestan Island 
Wildfarm in the Solway Firth 
Rounding Balcary Point 
Lot’s Wife 
Coast path & Hestan Island 
Looking ahead to Little Airds Hill 
View inland towards Screel Hill (left), with Balcary Bay (right) 
Wind-shaped trees 
View back along the coast 
Rascarrel Bay 
Rascarrel Bay 
Fungi 
Rascarrel Bay 
Loch Macki 
🌍 Location
📌 Start / finish at Balcary Bay, near minor road end 2 mi southeast of Auchencairn
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NX 821495
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 54.826475,-3.837296
❌ No public transport within 1 mi
🚗 Car park
📝 Key info
▶ 5 km / 3 mi | ▲ 220 m | ⌛ 2 hr
Features: 🌊 Balcary coastline; 💧 Loch Mackie
⬤ Moderate | Clear but rough clifftop coastal paths for the outward leg, rural tracks for the return, occasionally muddy.
Download file for GPS➡️ Clockwise circuit: start – Balcary Point – Airds Point – Lochenling – Rascarrel Bay – Loch Mackie – start
🥾 On our last visit
Wildlife: Stonechats, cormorants and other seabirds by the coast; whooper swans and mallards at Loch Mackie; sheep, cows, horses, donkeys.
Weather: Hazy sunshine breaking through cloud layer, mild but breezy on the exposed coast.
October 2015
