The Waters of Minnoch, but no dead bodies

I was determined to do one reasonably long walk during my holiday in Galloway, and this was it. We started at a bridge over the Water of Minnoch, near Bargrennan, where a dirty deed was once perpetrated, though thankfully not a real one.

Yes, once more I'm treading in the steps of Lord Peter Wimsey, the super-sleuth of Dorothy L. Sayers' novels, for it was somewhere around here that the artist Campbell's body was found. It looked like an accident. The poor fellow had surely stepped back to admire his painting, slipped and fallen in the drink... and it would have been accepted as such had not a tube of flake white paint been missing from the scene. If you wish to unravel that one, I invite you either to read Five Red Herrings or look for the BBC's adaptation on YouTube or Amazon.

Here's the view from the same bridge but looking upstream. From here we followed the Southern Upland Way, which sounds as if it ought to be challenging but in truth was easy going as we stayed close to the river most of the time.

Fungi thrive in the damp forest. This rather fine specimen was growing near the wonderfully named Auld Wife's Stank. I bet she did!

Joking aside, the Dictionary of the Scots Language defines 'stank' as a pond, pool or small semi-stagnant pool of water. See, I grow a little wiser every day, though I do wonder how it got its name. What did the auld (old) wife do in her stagnant pool? Fall in?

Soon after this the rivers divided – The Water of Minnock to the left and The Water of Trool to the right. We went right, still following the Southern Upland Way. According to a nearby notice board, there used to be stepping stones just above these falls. You can just see distant rocks in the river, but I'm very grateful that there's now a bridge here.

Finally we arrived at Lock Trool, which was a very good place for a picnic. I say 'finally' but, of course, there was still the trek back to our starting point.

I didn't plot the outward journey as the only map we had of this area was the one on my phone and I didn't relish finding our way if the battery went flat. But there was still 80% remaining as we turned to head downstream, so here's the second half of the ramble plotted on my new Memory Map app.