Dumfries & Galloway - May 2026

After a few holidays already in 2026, this would be our last one before we take our summer break, to escape the heat. And it would be somewhere new for us, South-West Scotland.

Our drive up on May 1st, it was a long day. We left home around 8:30am, made visits to the outdoor market, over to Harthill, and lastly to the hand car-wash, so by the time we actually left the area, it was 9:30 am.

Then on our way North we had a couple of stops at services, one for some shopping at Sainsbury's so by the time we arrived at the lovely red-brick house in Powfoot, is was close to 3:30pm. And as it was raining heavily, we decided to hunker down for the night.

On Saturday, we had a relaxing morning with both of us reading, then after lunch, we headed out in the sunshine. We had a couple of places in mind, Sweetheart Abbey, and Caerlaverock Castle. Both in a similar area about 45 minutes from where we are staying.

It was rather a disappointing visit to the abbey, as it was boarded up and covered in quite a bit of scaffolding. Looking at the signs, it was going to be under refurbishment for some time, as much of the stonework had issues, and there was a risk of falling masonry. We did, however, whilst there, stop and enjoy some cake and a hot drink from the Abbey Cafe. So not a wasted visit!

We headed over to the castle, and it was a stunner, sat in the middle of it's won moat, and then what looked like it has been another moat in the part, encircling the current moat. In addition, about 400m away, there were some remains of an earlier castle, one that this one replaced, as the original was built on peat, which is prone to sinking. The only disappointment was that part of this castle was also boarded off with scaffolding, this time due to nesting birds impacting the masonry.

After getting back to the house, we had our books out again, and spent the evening relaxing.

On Sunday, we hadn't planned much, so we went out for a walk for a few hours in the morning, just along the coast. Up past the golf course, and to the caravan park where we could make use of their cafe to have a hot drink and sit outside in the sun. Then for the rest of the day, it was books out, and some more time just reading and letting the world pass us by. I managed to finish the book I had taken with me, so took advantage of the old crown green bowling hut, which is now an honesty box charity shop. I had a rummage through their books and picked a couple of them at £2 each.

Now Monday would be a fairly long day. The plan was to head to the Mull of Galloway lighthouse, and then to Portpatrick, both in a similar area around two and a half hours away. The weather was lovely, sunny and a cool breeze from the North. And on route we were quickly lucky when a large metal drilling blade came off the back of a tractor that we were behind, but thankfully we had left enough of a gap so that even after it bounced around, it didn't hit the car.

The lighthouse is the most Southerly part of Scotland, and the view from up there was great. You could see the Isle of Man and the coast of Ireland. The history of the lighthouse and its still-working foghorn were also very interesting. We made use of the cafe there, which is built to blend in with the scenery, before heading the 30 minutes or so to Portpatrick.

And what a lovely little harbour village it is. Clear waters, backed by coloured buildings and lots of signs of its heritage. And with the weather, that made it all the better. Donna was even able to try a local Gin (double of course), and me, a local Black Stout.

We left on the long bank Holiday drive back to Powfoot, one that took us close to 3 hours, given the slow-moving cars and lorries on the way.

Tuesday was planned as a rest day, so apart from a visit to Annan to do some shopping, oh, and another car wash to get all the bird sh*t off the car, it was newspapers and books for most of the day. Split only by a short walk to the 'beach' for some photos at high tide. It's a large flat estuary, so most of the time you just see muddy sands stretching out in front of you, not much of a beach to speak of, really.

On Wednesday, the weather was set fair, so we headed to Threave Gardens and Nature Reserve. We had planned another visit after we had been here, but we didn't have time as we spent so much time here. In the morning, we visited the beautiful gardens, which were also having a freshen up ready for the summer. The smell of composted bark as we walked around areas of new planting was lovely, at least I thought so.

After eating our packed lunch, we sat on a bench, visited the cafe for a drink and some cake, then took the 5-minute drive to the Nature Reserve.

It was a great walk around the reserve, the highlight of which was seeing the Osprey on a nest. There were a couple of areas there, about a mile apart, where they were nesting, but at the second hide, there was a ranger with a scope trained on the next. He told us plenty about the birds, and we also saw on a graphic, how large their wingspan can be! By the time we arrived back at the house it was tea-time.

We were booked until Friday, but decided that we would head back a day early so we could miss the Friday traffic. Plus, the weather forecast was a little mixed for the area. So, Thursday travel it was. We didn't rush and eventually arrived back home around 3pm.