For mapping purposes, the route is split at Glasgow into Lochs and Glens (south)

and (north)

The route runs from Carlisle across the border to Dumfries

Dumfries

Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...

; this section takes a long route at present, but may change following the construction of an "all-purpose route" alongside the M6 extension. In Scotland, the route then heads west to Dumfries

Dumfries

Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...

 and then Newton Stewart

Newton Stewart

Newton Stewart is a burgh town in the south of Scotland in the west of the region of Dumfries and Galloway and in the county of Wigtownshire....

. At this point, it does not use the route of the abandoned Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint Railway.