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Patrol Blog from our new Seasonal Ranger, Jason Wilding…
Loch Ken Ranger Service Patrols
Loch Ken in Dumfries and Galloway is 9 miles long and has an east and west bank. It stretches from the village of new Galloway at the northern end where it is fed by the Water of Ken, to the barrage at the southern end by the village of Glenlochar and exits as the river Dee flowing to the sea at Kirkcudbright a further 10 miles.
I’ve been volunteering for the ranger service for a year now and was recently offered a more formal role as seasonal ranger to work with the permanent post holder. One of the many and varied tasks is have a presence around the Loch and this is achieved amongst other things by both boat and land patrols. It’s my first day land patrolling solo and I’m heading down the west bank, the first couple of miles of which are managed by the local angling association.
I touch base via WhatsApp with the ranger group to let them know where I’m heading, put my Loch Ken Ranger Service decals on the car, pack my kit of things I may need, and off we go. It’s mid Sunday afternoon and we had met two groups of anglers on Friday, camping here for the weekend, as I pass the first lay-by, I can see that their cars have gone, so I pull in to check the site for any rubbish left behind, any unextinguished fires etc, but fair play the site is spotless. Moving on I see the second trio are packing to leave, they have cleared the site of some of their rubbish but are struggling to fit it all into the public bin, I offer them an extra bag and as the bin is full and take the rubbish with me. As they drive away, I can see the campfire which was on the shoreline is still alight, often fires appear to be out but a small breeze and they soon come back to life, however a few buckets of water from the loch, removing the unburnt logs and the fire is extinguished.
A mile further down the road I meet with a holidaymaker, camper van door open, cup of tea in hand and a great view of the loch, he had cycled up the Raiders road, a 10mile forest drive through the Galloway Forest to Clatteringshaws Loch, a feeder reservoir for one of the hydroelectric schemes that flow into Loch Ken. He is loving the peace and quiet, we chat for a while and he thanks me for dropping by, giving him some advice about where to launch his kayak, where to pitch up and how to get to his next destination Loch Doon. Soon after the road bends away from the shoreline for five miles past Mossdale until I turn towards Ken Dee marshes, a lovely quiet part of the loch, off the beaten track and home to a large nature reserve. A further three miles and I’m crossing the bridge just beyond the barrage that marks the end of the Loch and I’m heading back up the western side on the A713, tourist route to Ayr. Whilst the eastern side is tight to the road with only small amounts of accessible shoreline and flanked mainly by forest, the western side is more open with fields and food plains and passes the villages of Crossmichael and Parton. There are a number of places that I pass where locals access the loch and these are regularly checked for hazards to wildlife, rubbish and campfires but today we’re heading for the public slipway just beyond the Loch Ken Holiday Park. It’s early July and weather though not great is warm today and this can be a popular spot for boat launches, and other craft with people wanting to enjoy the views and the water. Today however is unusually quiet, there is no one here, the waterline is high limiting anywhere sit by the waters edge so whilst I’m here I check the biosecurity station (this facility enables craft users to cleanse their equipment to prevent the transfer of invasive species to and from the loch). I move on to the next lay-by at Glenlaggan where there is a marina and from here views of the loch can be stunning. I can see there are water skiers in the Loch’s high-speed zone, but again the shoreline is quiet. A little further up the road I pass the Galloway Activity Centre where our boat is moored, and then two more miles and I’m home. I check back in to log off and with nothing unusual to report I put the rubbish in the bin and I’m done. You never know who or what you may encounter on a land patrol but today is quiet and we will be out again later in the week when the long summer holiday for Scottish schools has begun.
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