A wild and undiscovered coast-to-coast challenge — Southern Upland Way

The Southern Upland Way is an uncompromising coast-to-coast challenge that explores a wild, remote, and breathtakingly-beautiful part of Scotland.

Starting from Portpatrick, on the Irish Sea, the Way travels 214 miles (344 kilometers) through the border regions of Scotland to finish in Cockburnspath, on the North Sea.

The trail is hailed for its diversity of landscapes. Starting on coastal cliffs, the Way passes through pretty farmland, empty moorland, vast forests, lonely hill ranges, historical sights, and picturesque lochs to finish as it began, on rugged sea cliffs.

The Way is notoriously challenging and will test even the most experienced of hikers. Many stages are more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) long and tackle a wild and isolated landscape with no facilities or signs of civilization.

On all long stages, there is a suggestion on how to split the route with a stopover somewhere. There are free-to-use bothies on some stages. Where it is possible to split stages by staying in towns or villages close to the route, it is mentioned in the description.

Road pick-ups can be arranged on every stage, too—with the exception of Stage 04. This 26-mile (42-kilometer) stage can only be split with a stay in a bothy or by wild camping.

The Southern Upland Way is a serious challenge for experienced hikers. Preparation is vital. Ensuring you have enough food and water, the correct clothing for the weather conditions, as well as multiple sources of navigation (device, map, compass), first aid kit, and torch, is essential as civilization is often many miles away.

For those that do undertake this challenge, though, the rewards are immense: vast, empty, and staggeringly-beautiful landscapes all to yourself.

This challenging and still relatively-undiscovered trail—despite being Britain's first officially recognized coast-to-coast long-distance footpath—gives you a chance to escape modernity and return to untouched nature.

The trail is waymarked throughout. However, there are some moorland crossings which could be difficult to navigate in poor weather conditions.

In this Collection, we split the route into 11 stages. Of course, you can split up each stage into as many days as you are comfortable with. You can also walk any single stage, or a couple of stages, in isolation.

Every stage finishes close to accommodation, even if there are only a few options nearby. However, places to stay are not always abundant so it is worth planning in advance and scheduling any rest days accordingly.

If you are planning to arrive by public transport, you can catch a train to Stranraer, which has direct trains from Glasgow and connecting services around Britain. From Stranraer, you can catch the 367 bus service to Portpatrick.

To get home, you need to catch the 253 bus service to either Dunbar (for Edinburgh and Glasgow) or Berwick upon Tweed (for most of England). Both Dunbar and Berwick have railway stations with direct and connecting services around Britain.

As this is a long coast-to-coast crossing, arriving by car is not recommended. It will be a full day’s traveling on public transport from the finish back to the start. If you do wish to drive, your best bet is finding long stay parking in Edinburgh or Glasgow and using public transport to the start and finish.

For more information about the Southern Upland Way, visit: southernuplandway.gov.uk.
For the 367 bus timetable, visit: stagecoachbus.com/routes/west-scotland/367/portpatrick-south-crescent-stranraer-port-rodie/xtao367.i.
For the 253 bus timetable, visit: bustimes.org/services/253-edinburgh-berwick-upon-tweed-2.
For train timetables and tickets, visit: thetrainline.com.