remove any unnecessary items (apart from perhaps one or two lightweight luxuries), repack and carry the pack on a few short walks to ensure that it sits comfortably on your back and hips and that all is well. (Finally, take those two lightweight luxuries back out of the sack – they won’t seem so light after 200 miles...)
Ensure that you have enough cash with you for either the whole trip or until you can be certain of easily acquiring more.
On the first day of your holiday leave early for the train or bus station to avoid missing your transport which could put all your arrangements and accommodation reservations in jeopardy.
Start the walk and relax – all should now go like clockwork – and enjoy the walk!
Scotch Blackface tups (rams) of the Southern Uplands (photo: Alan Castle)
Equipment
There are several kitlists available these days with plentiful advice on equipment for various types of walking activities, and many glossy manufacturers’ brochures detail all manner of high tech hiking equipment, so newcomers to walking are advised to consult these before setting out on the SUW.
But one point is worth emphasising here. Nothing spoils a walking expedition more than carrying a large, very heavy rucksack, particularly one containing lots of unnecessary equipment. The author is often amazed at the quantity of equipment that some people carry even on modest excursions. Assemble your equipment and then go through it carefully to see what may be safely left behind. If you are staying in B&B and hotel accommodation, it should not be necessary to carry more than 15–20lbs, even including food and drink. Backpackers should aim for under 30lbs and certainly never more than 35lbs on a route of this nature, where food is available every few days. The main things to consider when packing include:
Sufficient clothing plus an emergency blanket to keep you warm, dry and safe
Maps, guidebook, compass, torch, whistle
A small first aid kit plus any personal medicines
A small washing kit (not a huge soap bag and no towel if using B&B or hotel accommodation)
Sufficient food and drink, including emergency food
Backpackers will also need a good lightweight tent, sleeping bag, insulating mat, cooking stove, utensils, fuel and a lightweight travel towel. Most other items will be superfluous. My luxuries consist only of a camera and a small exercise book to be used as a travel journal.
Maps
This guidebook contains Ordnance Survey (OS) Landranger (1:50,000) mapping of the entire SUW with the route of the Trail clearly overlaid. Provided no serious navigational errors occur en route, nor long detours from the SUW are envisaged, then in theory this is the only mapping that is required to walk the Trail. However, many walkers will want to carry some general maps of the area with them, as these are useful for a number of reasons. When you reach one of the many viewpoints along the SUW you will see other distant hills and ranges, villages and small towns, and a whole topography of land and seascape. What are those villages, those hills, that coastline? Unless you have a detailed knowledge of the area, or are walking with a local guide, then the answers to these and other similar questions can only be answered by reference to a good map. Sometimes it will be necessary to divert from the actual line of the SUW to secure a night’s accommodation. Several places of interest are varying distances from the route, from a few hundred yards to several miles, and in order to plot the shortest or most interesting route to them and back onto the Trail, a map will be invaluable. So you must make a decision whether or not to carry other maps with you when walking the SUW.
On the flank of Peniestone Knowe (Stage 10)
A very useful supplement to the mapping in this book is the Harvey Southern Upland Way route map (2018). It covers an area of several miles either side of the route at 1:40,000 scale. It is recommended especially if you have more than one map reader in your group, or if you are carrying this book in digital format and so require a backup map on paper.
The route, heading generally north-eastwards across the southern half of Scotland, cuts across a considerable number of OS map sheets. So if OS maps at either 1:50,000 scale or at 1:25,000 scale are to be taken then there will firstly be a fairly considerable financial outlay in buying the maps, and then their extra weight and bulk will have to be tolerated whilst on the walk. A possible solution to these mapping problems is to use the very adequate OS maps of the route contained in this guidebook for actually walking the Trail, but also to purchase a small scale map of the whole area, such as the OS 1:250,000 scale map of Southern Scotland and Northumberland. This could be either a paper map or installed in a GPS device or phone. This will be useful in overall planning before you leave home, but can also be used to identify distant features in a view and to provide an overview of the wider area through which you are passing. This map will of course have severe limitations if you intend to make detailed detours on foot for some distance from the route, although for relatively short on-foot diversions, the maps in this book will be more than adequate.
The maps that cover the entire SUW from west to east are given below for reference.
OS Landranger Series (1:50,000)
(9 sheets cover the whole of the SUW)
Sheet 82: Stranraer & Glenluce
Sheet 76: Girvan
Sheet 77: Dalmellington & New Galloway
(Sheet 71: Lanark & Upper Nithsdale)*
Sheet 78: Nithsdale & Annandale
Sheet 79: Hawick & Eskdale
Sheet 73: Peebles, Galashiels & Selkirk
Sheet 74: Kelso & Coldstream
Sheet 67: Duns, Dunbar & Eyemouth
*Sheet 71 is unnecessary if Sheet 77 and Sheet 78 are used, as there is sheet overlap.
The route of the SUW is clearly shown on these Landranger maps as a line of red diamond symbols.
Craig Burn (Stage 2)
OS Explorer Series (1:25,000)
(13 sheets cover the whole of the SUW)
Sheet 309: Stranraer & The Rhins
Sheet 310: Glenluce & Kirkcowan
Sheet 319: Galloway Forest Park South
(Sheet 318: Galloway Forest Park North)*
Sheet 320: Castle Douglas, Loch Ken & New Galloway
Sheet 328: Sanquhar & New Cumnock
Sheet 329: Lowther Hills, Sanquhar & Leadhills
Sheet 330:
