Day 6 – Stoanpatrick to Sanquhar (18.1 miles)

Firstly apologies for not managing to send many tracking beacons today, there wasn’t much signal available on our trek. (Our guidebook says “some of the remotest country in eastern Galloway)
Today our walk was a long & strenuous one. During the morning we had to tackle a couple of climbs. Firstly, ‘Manquhill Hill’ (421m) (pronounced “Manwill”) then the big one ‘Benbrack’ (580m), the highest point since Portpatrick, now in the grand scheme of things that’s not massive… but when you’re carrying all your kit for 2 weeks it’s a significant obstacle. However, greeting us at the top was not only a trig point, but a huge stone arch. The significance of this arch we don’t know, some kind of sculpture ‘thing’.
Next, after we’d descended to ‘plantation level’ was ‘Allan’s Cairn’ commemorating martyrs shot by dragoons in the 1600’s (Some religious wranglings after Charlie [son of Charlie] took the throne)
After we’d paid a flying visit to ‘Polskeoch Bothy’ we had a road section to contend with. Now today was a hot day, but up in the hills we’d had a mistral wind to keep us cool, down on the road it was hot, hot, hot the heat reflecting off the tarmac as we strode eastwards.
At about 4 o’clock we came across a dwelling selling refreshment to weary walkers. After ordering coffee we took the opportunity to have a few water bottles filled as we still had about 6.6 miles to go :-/
Last up was the long climb up and over ‘Cloud Hill’ (451m), where we found today’s hidden treasure, we caught our first glimpse of Sanquhar with 4 miles to go, eventually reaching the B&B at exactly 18:30
Stats: Total mileage: 97.4 Pint count: 11