Forestry Commission - News - community car park opens at kirroughtree

A new community car park at Kirroughtree visitor centre is just one of many new features aiming to make the place more accessible to locals and tourists.

Forestry Commission Scotland worked closely with the community on the design of the car park which can take up to 60 cars. Access to the visitor centre and play park have also been improved for wheel chair users.

A 'dipping platform' at the pond, which is part of the all ability path, will be installed in the next couple of weeks for children on educational visits.

The new facilities have been part funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Commission's 7stanes mountain bike project.

Keith Muir, tourism manager for the Commission in Galloway said:

"We're really pleased that the new car park will help make the visitor centre accessible to more people. A big thank you has to go to the local community who have given some great help in its design and layout from a users point of view. It was quite a large construction project but we think we managed to keep the layout very closely to what we all wanted.

"During the construction we've had to handle some extreme weather and this put us back slightly in terms of opening but everyone has been very patient. I'm sure everyone will agree that the end result was worth it."

Moves are also underway to reduce any bottlenecks as there's an increase in mountain bikers and walkers converging near the visitor centre. Visitor numbers have risen sharply at the popular venue and are expected to rise further over the years. Over 30,000 made their way to Kirroughtree visitor centre last year, a rise of 10,000 over previous figures.

Keith added: " We aim to introduce better signage in the near future and that will go a long way to help cope with demand. We need to prepare for the next few years and to do this we are undertaking a major review of how the centre operates. We are also keen to see where the centre fits in to the Galloway Forest Park therefore invites to an important workshop on the future of the forest park are being posted to key tourism stakeholders to start this process."

Media enquiries to: Keith Muir, Galloway Forest District, 01671 402 420 or Steve Williams, Forestry Commission Press Office 0131 314 6508.