Touring
Newark Farm at Sanquhar is an ideal base for touring southwest Scotland, no more so than exploring the passes which cut through the Southern Uplands in a roughly north-south direction between Dumfries and Galloway and South Lanarkshire.
Wanlockhead, Leadhills & the Lowther Hills
A particular example is the Mennock Pass, running the north from just east of Newark Farm and meandering beneath the imposing steep-sided Lowther Hills up to the remote villages of Wanlockhead and Leadhills, the two highest villages in Scotland.
Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland, has a mining history commemorated in the Museum of Lead Mining and other industrial artifacts which remain, such as the Wanlockhead Beam Engine and Glen Crieff Mine.
Leadhills, the second highest village in Scotland, shares this industrial heritage with Wanlockhead and today a heritage railway, the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway runs between the two villages on a narrow-gauge route.
While driving the Mennock Pass, and indeed from further afield in the Nith Valley, one may notice a strange “golf ball” structure atop the Lowther Hills. This is the Lowther Hill Radar Station, operated by the UK air traffic control service, NATS. Motor vehicle access may be restricted but it is worth cycling or walking to the top from Wanlockhead as the peak affords glorious views all over the surrounding hills and valleys. That is of course with weather permitting.
Wanlockhead
