Sulwath Connections
Celebrating and enhancing the Scottish Solway Coast and river valleys
Balloch Wood Heritage
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Balloch Wood is a special woodland consisting of almost 90 hectares of mixed conifer planting and ancient woodland, including Larch, Scots Pine, Oak, Elm, and Italian Alder.
The seasonal changes enhance the visitors' experience of the woodland; it abounds with primroses and blue bells in springtime, and in late autumn, the Larch trees carpet the forest floor with their ochre coloured needles. Throughout the year there are abundant mosses and ferns, particularly those hanging in the cool, damp gorge; a gorge created over many thousands of years by the gradual cutting action of the Balloch Burn.
Wildlife is plentiful with a healthy red squirrels population; woodpeckers, tree creepers, great and coal tits, and roe deer, all thrive in this peaceful woodland setting.
A long working relationship between Balloch Wood and the village of Creetown has existed since the 18th century, where a grain mill, lead shot mine, sand and gravel quarries, a tannery, wood yard, and a cotton mill, all provided employment for the folk of Creetown. This illustrious past needs to be acknowledged, the people, still alive who worked the mills and quarries need their working lives documented. The visible remains of the mills and mines recorded, and possibly conserved, with an archive put together documenting the working life of Creetown.
Over the last three years, paths have been installed; paths, which meander through the woodland, taking in all the areas of special interest; the chalybeate well, red squirrel feeding station and over the Cardoon Bridge into ancient woodland before exiting at the Garrochar wildlife ponds.
