Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Dumfries and Galloway
Scotland's southwest corner, now known as Dumfries and Galloway, is a
region set apart, with few people bothering to exit the main Carlisle-
Glasgow motorway that runs through the county. Yet the area has stately
homes, deserted hills and ruined abbeys to compete with the best of the
Borders. It also has something the Borders don't have, and that's the Solway
coast, a long, indented coastline of sheltered sandy coves that's been
dubbed the “Scottish Riviera” - an exaggeration perhaps, but it's certainly
Scotland's warmest, southernmost stretch of coastline.
3
Dumfries
is the region's main settlement, a run-down town that's only a must for those
on the trail of
Robert Burns
, who spent the last part of his life here. More compelling is
the nearby coast, overlooking the Solway Firth, the shallow estuary wedged between
Scotland and England, famed for its wildlife and for the nearby red-sandstone ruins of
Caerlaverock Castle
and
Sweetheart Abbey
. Edged by tidal marsh and mudbank, much
of the Solway shoreline is flat and eerily remote, but there are also some fine rocky bays
sheltering beneath wooded hills, most notably along the
Colvend coast
. Further along
the coast is
Kirkcudbright
, once a bustling port thronged with sailing ships, later an
artists' retreat and now a tranquil, well-preserved little eighteenth- and early
nineteenth-century town. Like Kirkcudbright,
Threave Garden
and
Threave Castle
, just
outside Castle Douglas, are popular with - but not crowded by - tourists.
Contrasting with the essentially gentle landscape of the Solway coast is the brooding
presence of the
Galloway Hills
to the north, their beautiful moors, mountains, lakes and
rivers centred on the 235 square miles of the
Galloway Forest Park
, a hillwalking and
mountain-biking paradise that deserves to be better known than it is. As you countinue
west into what used to be Wigtownshire, the landscape becomes flatter and more
relentlessly agricultural. he main points of interest here are the attractive seaport of
Portpatrick
on the hammer-headed Rhinns of Galloway and the
Mull of Galloway
,
Scotland's southernmost point and a nesting site for thousands of seabirds.
he combination of rolling landscape and quiet back roads makes the region good for
cyclists
: five of the
7stanes
(
W
7stanes.gov.uk) purpose-built mountain-bike routes are
in the forested hills of Dumfries and Galloway. his is also rewarding
walking
country,
featuring the
Southern Upland Way
(
W
southernuplandway.com), a 212-mile coast-to-
coast hike from Portpatrick in the west to Cockburnspath in the east.
Brief history
he region has a fascinatingly diverse heritage. Originally inhabited by southern Picts,
it has at various times been overrun by Romans, Anglo-Saxons from Northumberland
and Celts from Ireland: the name Galloway means the “land of the stranger Gaels”. It
was an unruly land, where independent chieftains maintained close contacts with the
Vikings rather than the Scots, right up until medieval times. Gradually, this autonomy
was whittled away, and the area was swallowed up by the Scottish Crown, though
Gretna Green marriages
p.141
Kirkcudbright's festivals
p.149
Hiking, biking and star-gazing:
Galloway Forest Park
p.152
Watersports in Galloway Forest
Park
p.153
Walks around Portpatrick
p.155
