By Anon
In September we headed up North to Dumfries and Galloway for some cycling.
Castle Douglas
Balcary Bay
Balcary Bay Country House Hotel – best hotel and best food (Two AA rosettes)
Cream of Galloway
Kirkcudbright
The King’s Arms Hotel in Castle Douglas welcomes cyclists.
There are also lots of golf courses in the area.
The worst things:
Stewartry Show.
If it was an independent state, like Lichtenstein, Dumfries and Galloway could be rich.
But Dumfries and Galloway is not an independent state and it lacks the power to make the big decisions.
The really big decisions are made in London and in Edinburgh.
The talented people tend to leave Dumfries and Galloway and head south.
Cairnsmore in the distance.
If you cycle off the beaten track in Dumfries and Galloway, you will come across an Enid Blyton – John Buchan – Peter Pan – Rupert Bear – Gavin Maxwell sort of world.
Think of mysterious castles, rounded hills and enchanted bays.
J M Barrie went to school in Dumfries, chief town of Dumfries and Galloway, and there he spent the happiest days of his life (Victoria Terrace).
Robert Burns had a house in Dumfries (Burns Street).
Part of John Buchan‘s Thirty Nine Steps was filmed in the Dumfries and Galloway hills and valleys.
The gentle hills of Galloway are like the ones in the Rupert Bear or Enid Blyton books: gently rounded, with clumps of trees, rocky outcrops, fluffy little clouds and sometimes deep blue sky.
Carlingwark Loch.
When it’s not raining, the light is incredibly bright, and the air so very clear; hence the attraction to artists.
This is not sunny Spain, but the climate tends to be mild; a possibly drier version of Cornwall or the Lake District.
Gavin Maxwell, author of Ring of Bright Water, was born in Dumfries and Galloway.
Drumlanrig Castle
Near Thornhill is exotic, multi-turreted 17th century Drumlanrig Castle, which has paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt.
This is one of Britain’s sexiest castles. It is home to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry.
It was a Queensberry who was the father of Lord Arthur Douglas.
Look out for the decorative cupolas, Renaissance-style colonnade, Baroque horseshoe stairway and gorgeous gardens.
There is a large adventure playground for children.
Hornel
Coastal Kirkcudbright is an attractive and aristocratic “artist’s town”, associated with the Glasgow Boys.
Kirkcudbright’s Broughton House is where the artist Edward Hornel used to live. For part of the year, you can tour the beautiful house and see Hornel’s Japanese-style pictures of little girls, some naked, and his magical garden, which is probably the very best garden in the world.
Kirkcudbright has a wild life park and a fabulous jazz festival each June.
Wigtown, which looks rather French, is Dumfries and Galloway’s book town and it has at least 20 book businesses.
Weapons testing at Dundrennan has led to certain worries.
“Although 27 tonnes of depleted uranium have been fired into the sea at the Kircudbright range none of the shells has been recovered despite extensive searches….the controversial shells …blamed for causing…Gulf War Syndrome…” according to The Galloway News.
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Gatehouse of Fleet has a large second hand book shop, run by poet Robin Munro.
Gatehouse’s Cally Palace Hotel has AA one rosette food and a super golf course.
Georgian buildings; bonny views of hills.
Gatehouse has the Laggan Outdoor centre.
Laggan Outdoor centre
New Abbey is associated with John Balliol, the founder of Balliol College, Oxford. This pretty village has an abbey and a tearoom.
Castle Douglas has the best shopping in the area, a caravan park, three cycle shops, golf, a boating loch, a little art gallery, a theatre, one of the best second hand book shops in Scotland and the tiny Sulwath brewery which produces the world’s tastiest real ales (Knockendoch is a dark copper coloured brew tasting of deeply roasted malts) and which provides tours.
Castle Douglas is close to Threave Gardens and Threave Castle.
Creetown – well worth a visit. It has a gem museum.
Dalbeattie has some of the friendliest people in Britain.
It has the fabulous little Dalbeattie Museum of Victoriana.
The officer on the deck of the Titanic, when it sank, was a man from Dalbeattie.
The Dalbeattie area is famous for off-road cycling.
From the Dalbeattie Museum
The National Trust’s hilly Threave Gardens, near the town of Castle Douglas, has a magical walled garden, glasshouses, an eastern style pond, rock plants, tall trees, rhododendrons and heavenly views on a clear day.
Logan Botanic Garden, 14 miles South of Stranraer, at Port Logan, open March-October, has water, walled, terrace, woodland and other small gardens, with tree ferns, palm trees, climbers… and there’s a nice licensed restaurant.
Crossmichael, near Castle Douglas, used to have a Michelin starred restaurant, but it moved to Leith in Edinburgh, which is where the money and the power lie.
Buddhists, and others, will enjoy the Samye-Ling Tibetan Centre at Eskdalemuir. Here you will Visit Site