For most users of these hills, the Galloway Hills would mean the ranges which lie north of a line running eastwards along the north shores of Loch Trool, Loch Dee and Clatteringshaws Reservoir. This for them would be the notional true heartland of the Galloway Hills. The Southern Upland Way and the National Cycle Network Route Number Seven travel along this line. A slightly looser use of the phrase Galloway Hills would include the ranges which lie to the south of that line.