Andy Goldsworthy's Striding Arches
Formally opened in autumn 2008, the Cairnhead Community Forest Trust and the Forestry Commission welcome visitors to this world class site to explore the dramatic landscape and see Andy Goldsworthy's work in the context of the environment in which he walks and works.
The walking routes with maps, described on the information panel by the car park or from www.stridingarches.com, offer a variety of walks depending on levels of fitness, time and experience. Choose from a series of walks to any of the arches, or follow the beautiful Dalwhat Water walk through the glen, collecting texts from letterboxes to make up a Renga poem written by artist Alec Finlay.
The walk to the highest arch on top of Colt Hill at 598m, offers spectacular views of the surrounding countryside and a sightline of the other arches. This 6 mile walk from the car park along a forestry road for most of the way is an easy and enjoyable way of seeing the landscape and the wildlife, joining the Southern Upland Way just before the peak.
Rugged walking across the hilltops from arch to arch offers the experienced walker a challenging hike across 10 miles of rugged terrain.
The arch at Benbrack strides the Southern Upland Way offering walkers a way mark on this long section of the route from Sanquhar to Dalry.
The Arches
Formed from 31 hand-dressed blocks of red sandstone from a nearby quarry, each arch stands just under four metres high, with a span of seven metres, weighing approximately 27 tons, and is totally self-supporting.
The sites were carefully chosen, reflecting Goldsworthy's intimate knowledge of the landscape, so that from each of the hilltop arches, the other two arches would be visible, thus acting as markers in the landscape and interacting with the viewer and each other. They do not dominate the landscape, but become part of it, sometimes obvious and exciting, at other times during a walk, camouflaged in the landscape so that one has to look hard along the horizon line to locate the curve against the sky.
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