Mull Circular Walk Print E-mail
Park your vehicle at the Mull of Galloway car park on the outskirts of this Nature Reserve. The circular route is marked and the visitor can either turn left or right when entering the reserve. Parts of this walk can take you close to the cliff edge where extreme care must be taken and good footwear is essential. Please keep to the footpaths or road. The reserve at the Mull is one of the RSPB's smallest sites, yet it contains an amazing variety of wildlife. On this small circular walk it is possible to see an incredible number and variety of species.

To the left the footpath makes its way through heathland where wildflowers abound, including several locally scarce species. Some of the butterflies that occur here are restricted to the mild southern coastline of Scotland. The path soon takes you to the Mull of Galloway Visitor Centre where it is worth spending some time.

The track then rises away from the Centre and a left turn takes you down to Lagvag Point, on the east side of the Mull. It is from here, in spring and summer, that you have the chance to see the few puffin that breed at the Mull which, along with other sea birds build precarious 'nests' or lay directly on the cliff or on boulders. Skeins of gannet sail past in bombing formation, leaving the Scares Rock - seen towards the east of the Mull - where they breed, to fish off the point.

You are looking across Luce Bay, towards the Machars of Galloway, and on a clear day you will see across to the Cumbrian coast.

Returning towards the lighthouse, turn left beside the neglected walled garden, and you will reach steep steps down to the foghorn, now unused. However, this is a good viewing platform from where you may see many sea birds, including puffin. You are looking across to the Isle of Man.

Return towards the lighthouse (open at weekends to the public from April to September) and continue westwards. Divert temporarily to your right, following the footpath to the orientation cairn.

Resume your walk from the lighthouse, along the footpath beside the road, taking extreme care.

You may meet grazing sheep, there for a short while in the winter. The views alongside these cliffs are spectacular, of rocks and sea, flowers and birds, the last two being more prolific during spring and early summer.

From here you are often able to see across to Ireland's Antrim Hills and the Mountains of Mourne. In the autumn the Mull provides an important resting place for southbound birds. In the winter you will see this Scottish coast at its most dramatic, with wind whipped waves crashing over rocks.