Walk 13: Land of Hope and Sparty

“Lead was once King” in the 19th century and the landscape a hive of industrial activity.

Now there are narrow steep valleys, with fast flowing burns and small farms full of playful lambs through to wide expanses of fell where the curlews call and lapwings display. We shall see where the lead miners of old, worked, lived with their families and where they worshipped. We will follow the route that the hardy Galloway Ponies took taking the lead from the mines to the smelt mills in the lower valley. Now the land has been returned to sheep and a tranquil wildlife-rich environment.