Heading for the Red Deer Range

We had only been in Newton Stewart a few days, but quickly settled into a pleasant morning routine. Our start to the day included coffee, breakfast, and a short walk through town, returning along the peaceful River Cree

On day four after returning from our morning walk, we headed into Galloway Forest to see the red kites at Bellymack Farm.

We’d visited the feeding station a couple of times  before—last year and in 2012—and planned to go again.

Before that stop, we intended to visit the Red Deer Range at Castle Douglas.

Early morning views along the River Cree – click any image to open the picture set

Red Deer Range

On our way to Bellymack Farm we headed for the Red Deer Range at Castle Douglas. The range was about 10 miles from where we were staying.

The Red Deer Range was set up in 1977 and there are around 25 red deer living there at present. With a dedicated viewing area and hide it’s well worth a stop to have a look.

If it’s the sort of thing that floats your boat you can read more about the range by clicking on this link.

Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery from the red deer range.  Click or scroll though the images to see these magnificent animals.

Black Loch

Just a mile or two back down the road we had travelled to the red deer range, and a little way off the beaten track was the Talnotry walking trail.

We decided to head back there and take a walk alongside the loch and look for an interesting sculpture called The Eye which we knew was located beside Black loch.

An unusual sculpture

The Eye is a cone sculpture made with quarry tiles and was created in 1999 by the artist Colin Rose. It’s worth seeing and although unusual it doesn’t look out of place alongside the peaceful loch.

The sculpture is 10 metres tall and at eye height, there is a hole cut through the cone that allows you to see over to the other side of the loch, which is the ‘eye of the needle’.

Red Kites at Ballymack

At the same time as we had booked this trip (at the back end of 2024) we had decided if the weather was decent we would head to see the red kites at Bellymack farm.

As I mentioned earlier in this post we have been to the red kite feeding station a couple of times before. It’s such a magnificent spectacle that I don’t think we will ever get bored of seeing it. And I know for sure that the visit on this trip would be unlikely to be the last time we go there.

As regular as clockwork

The kites are fed as regularly as clockwork – every single day of the year at 2pm.

Red kites were re-introduced to Galloway back in 2001 and have been gathering at Bellymack Hill Farm since then.

You can find more about the feeding station at this link or by doing a general web search.

It’s easy to get to, has plenty of parking space, has friendly and knowledgeable staff and decent refreshments are available.

And all in the certain knowledge that at 2pm hundreds of red kites are going to be swooping down to spectacularly grab the food that is put out.

 

CatStrand and home

We had enjoyed another fabulous day and made one last stop for refreshments before heading back to our accommodation in Newton Stewart.

We called to CatStrand an arts and visitor centre in New Galloway. It’s a venue we have called at on previous trips and it’s a handy stop off for refreshments as well as a decent place to browse for gifts.

All in all we had really enjoyed our day. The red kites didn’t disappoint and were just superb and for us were probably one of the highlights of our trip.

Not for the first time on this trip, we ended the day with a fabulous view looking down the river to the Cree Bridge, you can see the view we had in the final picture of this blog post in the picture set below.