It’s a fair old drive from North Yorkshire to Mull, so when we visited earlier this year we allowed plenty of time to get to the ferry terminal in Oban, with a few longer stops along the way to let the dogs stretch their legs. Our first stop was an amble up Gallow Hill from Moffat, which was only a short detour off the motorway on our way north. It’s slightly quicker to get to than the Grey Mare’s Tail too, if you don’t have long to spare.
We followed a circular route of just over two miles from the Walkhighlands website. Parking is free in the centre of Moffat (where there’s also plenty of independent shops and cafes), and we set off steadily uphill to very quickly leave the town centre and eventually pick up a woodland trail.
The path starts off quite narrow and threads its way through the woods under fairly dense tree cover (which as a tree pollen hay fever sufferer, I was glad I’d taken a hay fever tablet that morning), eventually reaching a cross roads with broader paths and a fingerpost. From here we continued upwards, heading almost to the top of the hill, where the views start to open up. I wouldn’t say they are show stopping, but it is very pleasant walking. There’s the option to climb all the way up to the summit or to bypass it on a slightly lower path. On this occasion we took the bypass: it didn’t look like too far or steep to get to the summit, but it was quite warm and I didn’t want to be rushing to get back to the car with several hours of travelling still to go!
Although you gain 170 metres in height over the course of the walk, the climb really doesn’t feel too much like hard work, and the descent is the same. The walk down through the trees was lovely and quiet, and after an initial rush of dog walkers on the way up, we hardly saw anyone else. Again the walk down is pretty gradual and not steep at all – it was extremely pleasant with the trees a million different shades of green and the sunlight filtering through.
This walk took us less than 90 minutes, but we arrived back at the car feeling well rested and ready to carry on with the drive. I popped into one of Moffat’s independent pet shops before west off again to pick up some chews for the dogs to have on the ferry – they aren’t as inclined to sit quietly and look out to sea as we are! All in all this way a thoroughly enjoyable walk and I’ve resolved that we really do need to get back to Dumfries and Galloway for a proper trip (maybe next year…).
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. While there’s a bit of walking along a road at the start and end of the route, this is either extremely quiet or has pavement you can walk along. The route is stile and livestock free, and the trees provide some shade on a warmer days too (although not all of the time). You may want to bring water for your dog if it’s hot. I imagine this is a popular route with local dog walkers, although we were there on a sunny Saturday morning at the start of June and didn’t see too many people!
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