We wanted to leave the road as quickly as possible, so followed the route of the Loch Ryan Coastal Path (LRCP), which leaves the road on to the hillside about half a kilometre from the village. I think it might be possible to stay on the road until it turns into Glen App by Finnarts Bay, if you want to walk on the roadside verge and put up the heavy traffic. A small road goes round Finnart's Bay from where there is a path through the farm (not sure if you have right of access) to Craiganlea House where you meet up with the LRCP on the rise up Finnart's Hill.
The track you are walking on going up the hill is the old coach road which was the main road between Stranraer and Ayrshire in the 17th and 18th centuries. Remembering that it would all have been primarily horse-driven, it would have been quite a pull for the heavy horse and, I would not have fancied your chances if the coach was a runaway.
Little Laight Hill is also the location of a standing stone known as the 'taxing stone'. The stone is said to commemorate the burial of a Celtic Prince who invaded Pictish-controlled Galloway in the 8th C. Initially successful, he was eventually defeated and subsequently killed during his retreat in nearby Glen App in about AD741. The taxing stone is also sometimes taken as the border between Galloway and Ayrshire, hence the need for taxation.
On the hill behind the Taxing Stone and even further back but now lost in the forests, there are numerous Neolithic historical sites including standing stones, cairns and hut circles, that remind you that this hillside has an ancient history. For example, on Milldown Hill is the Long Tom standing stone, which measures over six feet tall and, arguably, was used for lunar observance purposes.
At the end of the rough moorland section (see Glen App photo above) , you meet the LRCP coming back up the hill again. From there the path starts to go downhill, dropping down to the floor of Glen App. There is a very short distance on the road until you take the small road on the left, opposite Glen App Church, and from where you access the next set of hills via the Bridge of the Mark over the Water of App. There is a small information hut by the first bridge as Tthe church at Glen App marks the end (or the beginning) of the Loch Ryan Coastal Path.
Unfortunately, the church was closed and locked the day we visited and we could not see the stained glass window. The family seat of the Earls of Inchcape was at Glen App Castle (1870), now a hotel and which you pass below on the way to Garleffin.
Once on the other side of the glen, we stepped off the main track for a brew up and lunch. Just a few yards along the track from us and just opposite from where we were sitting, there was a collection of eight or nine bee hives. Fortunately for us, the majority of the bees were still in hibernation mode and only a very few bothered to investigate us.
For most of the ACP section you are walking on track or secondary road, until you reach the junction between Craigmore Hill and Drumduff Hill where there is the option to go back on the hillside. There are signposts at the junction but we found them pretty confusing. The short and curly of it was that on a normal day you could go left and follow the ACP initially on road or track, later on the hillside. Or, you could go right for a very long road walk to Ballintrae via Kiltringan Bridge, where you swing left to follow the unnamed road to Garleffin, where it meets up again with the ACP, before going on to Ballintrae.
The first option was closed off to us because the ACP was closed that day below the junction while they did work on it. We had no option but to take what turned out to be a fairly boring road walk until we reached Garleffin where we started to have nice views again. If you have the choice and you are hale and hearty, take the other option.
On the approaches to the town, in order to pass by the remains of Ardstinchar Castle, we took the small unnamed road approaching the Ballantrae bridge. The castle was the family seat of the Kennedy's of Ardstinchar (taking its name from the burn that flows beside it). Built in about 1450, there is little of it left to see apart from a remaining keep and some foundation stones. The castle fell into disrepair mid-to-late 18th C. Much of the castle stone was used to build a nearby three-span bridge, local houses and a local hotel.
That night we received another little gift from Ailsa Craig to see us off to our bed.