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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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Hop over to Hestan Island via the Hestan Rack Causeway.
This cache must be treated with caution due to you having to pass over a causeway. Therefore it is not suitable for youngsters or those who are unable to walk long distances, as it will involve a long hard trek of app 1 1/2- 2 hours over some pretty rough terrain to get over to the headland.
Hestan Island is often refered to as 'The Green Island of The Solway'. It sits at the mouth of Auchencairn bay, & is a very impressive sight.
Mining for copper occured here at one point, it was extracted then shipped down to the coast to Swansea, in South Wales, but now, all that remains is an automated lighthouse, grazing for sheep, & a small cottage, now rather the worse for wear, that is sometimes used as a holiday home.
Look out for the Elephant Rock, a rock in the shape of an elephant...if you see it, take a pic of it & post it on here!
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Park off the A711 at the end of the road at N 54 52.210, W 003 50.269. The road that you need is signposted 'Orchardton Tower', you will drive past it in order to park the car, & its well worth a visit.
Once you have parked the car, continue down the 'right of way' footpath, but please make sure you keep dogs on a lead as you will have to pass some farm houses, & they have some sheepdogs running around.
Go through the wooden 5 bar gate that is straight ahead of you, followed imediatley after by a wooden kissing gate.
Continue along this track until you come to another gate, just after this, the track will bear left. At this point, N 54 51.177, W 003 49.234 you have a choice,If you go right, you can follow the track which will take you inland, then drop down onto White Port Bay.
Or you can go left, which will take you right round the headland & to Horse Isles Bay, with a lovely view of Rough Island, before continuing round the headland to White Port bay. Its a slightly longer route, but well worth it.
Its quite hard going in places, & you could well be coming back in the dark, so make sure you bring a torch, & log some waypoints as you go too, as they will be a great help!
Either way, once you get to White Port, you will either have to scramble over the rocks (this is where a trekking pole comes in handy!) or you will have to wait untill the tide recedes & you can walk around the headland, which will only take about 10 minutes.
Once on the Rack, it will take you 10 minutes to cross the causeway. As long as you keep an eye on the tide, you won't have any problems. Quite often you will see fishermen out on jet ski type vehicles skimming over the sand, they are a good indication of when the tide is about to turn, so keep an eye out for them.
If you are planning to do this cache, it would be well worth you doing a practise run the day before, in order to work out your preferred route to the headland.I would also pack the following...
Good stout walking boots,
Warm, waterproof clothing,
Trekking Poles/walking stick,
Food & water,
Mobile phone.
If you would like to mail me with any questions, please do not hesitate to drop me a line.
***DON'T FORGET, YOU WILL HAVE TO TAKE A PEN WITH YOU TO FILL IN THE LOG BOOK!!***
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Tb cnfg gur pbggntr,hc gur uvyy, & lbh jvyy frr gur ehva bs n ohvyqvat. gur pnpur vf uvqqra haqre n pbeare fgbar, snpvat gur pnhfjnl.