Loch Neldricken

Loch Neldricken is a loch in Galloway to the south-east of Merrick, south of Craig Neldricken and west of Craignaw. The loch is almost bisected by a long promontory. It drains via the short Mid Burn into Loch Valley and then via Gairland Burn down to Loch Trool. An inlet at the west of the loch is marked on maps as 'Murder Hole' and features in SR Crockett's The Raiders. However, the original 'Murder Hole' was a well on the Glen Trool to Straiton road where the bodies of travellers who had been robbed and murdered were dumped and Crockett moved the location for his book. The loch has suffered from acidification but has recovered to some extent, with the pH increasing from around 4.4 in 1978 to 5.4 in 2003. Between 1983 and 2003 the loch's DOC levels increased.

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Galloway Forest Park

Galloway Forest Park is a forest park operated by Forestry and Land Scotland, principally covering woodland in the historic counties of Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire in the administrative area of Dumfries and Galloway. It is claimed to be the largest forest in the UK. The park was granted Dark Sky Park status ("Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park") in November 2009, being the first area in the UK to be so designated. The park, established in 1947, covers 774 square kilometres (299 mi2) and receives over 800,000 visitors per year. The two visitor centres at Glen Trool and Kirroughtree receive around 150,000 visitors each year. The third visitor centre at Clatteringshaws was sold in late 2024 to the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory for redevelopment and is expected to re-open in 2027. Much of the Galloway Hills lie within the boundaries of the park and there is good but rough hillwalking and also some rock climbing and ice-climbing within the park. Within or near the boundaries of the park are several well developed mountain bike tracks, forming part of the 7stanes project. As well as catering for recreation, the park includes economically valuable woodland, producing 500,000 tons of timber per year. Galloway Forest Park and the people who visit it and work in it were the subject of a six-part BBC One documentary series aired in early 2018 entitled "The Forest".

Craignaw

Craignaw is a hill in the Dungeon Hills, a sub-range of the Galloway Hills range, part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Unlike many hills in the Southern Uplands, Craignaw has a complex and rocky summit area, with a long line of crags and rough ground on the east side. The hill is largely composed of granite. Near the north end of the hill is an interesting area of terrain known as the "Deil's Bowlin' Green" where various rounded granite boulders are scatterd at random over an area of nearly horizontal granite slabs. These are believed to be glacial erratics or result from a similar glacier process. On the west side of the hill, near grid reference NX458831, a few hundred meters from the summit is an F-111E Aardvark crash site. The site is marked by a small memorial to the two U.S. Air Force pilots who were killed in the accident (Captains Spaulding and Hetzner). Although the crash happened on 19 December 1979 there are still small amounts of aircraft debris in the area.

Loch Valley

Loch Valley is a loch in Galloway Forest Park to the east of Buchan Hill, north of the Rig of the Jarkness and southwest of Craignaw. It drains via Gairland Burn down to Loch Trool. The loch has a catchment area entirely on the Loch Doon granite, is oligotrophic, and has suffered from gradual acidification since the mid-19th century leading to the elimination of the original Brown Trout population. It has recovered to some extent, with the pH increasing slowly from around 4.4 in 1978 to 5.2 in 2003. Between 1983 and 2003 the loch's dissolved organic carbon levels increased, and the loch had a sediment accumulation rate of around 0.01 g cm−2 yr−1 from 1850 to 1975.

Galloway Hills

The Galloway Hills are part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland, and form the northern boundary of western Galloway. They lie within the bounds of the Galloway Forest Park, an area of some 300 square miles (800 km2) of largely uninhabited wild land, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland. The unusual place names reflect a mixture of the Old Norse and Scottish Gaelic languages and hint at the range of influences which have acted on society within the area over the centuries.