anteros_lmc | Entries tagged with galloway

Wishing you all the very best for the New Year!
May 2015 be everything you hope for. A x

Hello, remember me? I'm still beset by builders here, but at last the end is in sight. Huzzah! The building work should be finished by the end of next week and then all we have to do is decorate four rooms and sort our house out from top to bottom. With any luck we'll be done by Christmas :} It's also that time of year when our delightful university tries its damnedess to sneakily terminate everyones contract's. Joy abounds.

Never mind, we managed to escape the chaos last weekend and went off down to Galloway for a few nights camping with friends. The weather was grand and we spent two days bimbling round the Wigtown book fair, over indulging at the farmers market, chilling by the beach and drinking too much gin. I also managed to pick up second hand copies The Floating Republic: An Account of the Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore in 1797 and Peter Le Fevre's Precursors of Nelson: British Admirals of the Eighteenth Century. Not a bad weekend all in all. I could do with a few more like that!

Hope you guys are all good?

Just add gin

Over the weekend we had a well deserved break and went off camping down to Dumfries. Despite the fact that it was a bank holiday weekend, we actually had some glorious weather and less rain than we'd feared :}

Dumfries and Galloway runs an annual art festival every year, the Spring Fling, so we had a very cultured day on Sunday wandering around the art galleries and I came home with a lovely piece of art :)

Earlier on Saturday we went to visit Threave Castle, stronghold of the Black Douglas dynasty, who ruled Galloway during the 14th and 15th centuries. Threave it a fabulously atmospheric site which sits on an island in the middle of the River Dee and is only accessible by a small boat which you ring for from the river bank. The main tower of the castle was built in 1369 by Archibald the Grim (I'm not making this up), 3rd Earl of Douglas and Lord of Galloway. A contemporary source records "He was callit Archibald Grym be the Englishmen because of his terrible countenance in weirfare." (I can think of one Englishman who may beg to differ about Archibald's terrible countenance ;) Apparently the tower was patched up in the 19th century and used to house French prisoners during the Napoleonic wars but I haven't been able to find out any more information about this.

We also visited Threave Gardens, the National Trust for Scotland's school of horticulture, the azaleas were all in bloom and the colours were spectacular. Then on the way home on Monday we stopped off at Dundrennan Abbey a Cistercian monastery founded in 1132 and famous for its elegant and restrained architectural style. I've only visited Dundrennan one or twice before but it's probably one of my favourite monastic sites in Scotland, I love the way that the gray stone contrasts with the lush green farmland.

Threave Castle, stronghold of Archibald the Grim

( Grim castles and glorious azaleas )

More pics of sunny Galloway as promised, it seems like a world away now, as its been pissing with rain here all day :} We camped at Gatehouse of Fleet but spent most of the weekend bimbling around the Machars area of Wigtonshire. Our trip coincided with the Wigtown Book Festival and we spent Saturday wandering around the book town tripping over literary celebs like Joanna Lumley and William McIlvanney (does he count as a celeb?) which was a bit surreal tbh. I picked up a rather gorgeous edition of Cochrane's memoirs, a history of the Falmouth packet service and a cheap pre-publication copy of Sam Willis new book In the Hour of Victory. We also visited the Isle of whithorn and New Galloway, a ridiculously pretty little market town.

The highlight of the weekend for me though was a guided walk around the Georgian port town of Garlieston led by historian Lucy Inglis, author of Georgian London. I've been dying to visit Garlieston ever since

nodbear and I recently discovered that former Indefatigable midshipman John McKerlie captained merchant vessels operating from the port after he retired from active naval service. I'll post some pics of Garlieston in a separate post. I also finally managed to stop and take a picture of Corvisel House outside Newton Stewart where McKerlie lived later in life. Sadly I couldn't get a picture of the front of the house but it looks grand enough from the side!

Lest you think that I spent all weekend dragging partner, friends and children round Galloway's Georgian landmarks, rest assured we also spent plenty of time chilling by the beach drinking wine :)

( Gatehouse of Fleet, Whithorn and New Galloway )

I'm back! And against all the odds we had glorious weather while camping in Galloway this weekend. It was't just dry, it was actually warm and sunny. In Scotland! In September! It's unheard of. Well actually it's not, we quite often get a few days of good weather at this time of year but it's not often it's this good :) I'll be back to bore you with more pics later.

There's a house half way down the Galloway peninsula that I've coveted for several years and, lo and behold, when we drove past this weekend on our way down to Mull of Galloway lighthouse, there was a "For Sale" sign outside. And not just any old "For Sale" sign, a Savills "For Sale" sign. The house is called Chapel Rossan, after a chapel dedicated to St Drostan that is believed to have stood on the site from 600 - 1100 AD, and it can be yours for offers over £575,000. For your half million you'll get six bedrooms, six reception rooms, five bathrooms, a library, a garden room, a conservatory, various outbuildings and a 3.9 acre garden stocked with mature exotics, which backs onto the shore. Bargain! Partner has suggested that I buy it (aye right!) and open a retreat for AoS fangirls, complete with well stocked library of course ;) What do you think?

Also on the way back to Glasgow we stopped off at the ridiculously pretty town of New Galloway and went to a little tea room that had the most amazing wood panelled interiors. According to the waitress the property was is believed to have been built in 1804 by a sea captain who salvaged the beautiful panelling from a ship that was wrecked off Palnackie Harbour. The waitress couldn't remember the name of either the captain or the ship but she said there was an article about it in a 1979 issue of Scottish Field Magazine. I must see if I can track it down...

I'm just back from a few days camping in Galloway. We had glorious sunshine on Saturday and Sunday and howling gales and pouring rain last night and today. Pretty typical for a Scottish summer really! The pictures below were all taken at the Mull of Galloway, the point where seven tides are reputed to meet. I've posted a few pictures of the lighthouse before but I've never seen the incredible tidal race appear so clearly. Several currents collide south of the peninsula causing whirlpools and unpredictable tides that are avoided by all but the most experienced sailors.