Hotels in Dumfries & Galloway

Dumfries & Galloway

Dumfries & Galloway is ideal touring country with its quiet roads and a host of fascinating byways to explore. For the walker there is the network of hill roads, shore roads, forest and farm trails. For the sportsman of all kinds, there is fishing, sailing, pony trekking and many fine golf courses.

The region comprises Scotland's southwest corner, waiting-to-be-discovered high cliffs, sandy beaches and sheltered creeks, lochs and forest clad hills, towns and villages steeped in history, miles of rolling farmland and moor, sandstone abbeys, ancient castles and fascinating museums.

This is the country of Scotland's greatest bard Rabbie Burns. The Burns House, Centre and Mausoleum are in Dumfries. Also of St Ninian, who brought Christianity to Scotland (south of Wigtown is his little church), Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots who spent her last night on Scottish soil at Dundrennan. This area was also a centre for smugglers. The caves of the Solway Coast were their haunts, especially Dirk Hatterick's cave near Gatehouse.

History is important to the people of Dumfries & Galloway and they like to recall it in colourful pageants and festivals. The common ridings in towns like Langholm, Lockerbie, Moffat and Sanquar tell of the days when patrols were needed to fend off the English invader. After many years of providing a haven for artists, the region must now have more artists and craftsmen per square mile than any other part of Scotland. There are weavers, potters, glass blowers, toymakers, silversmiths, woodturners, bookbinders..…there's even a gem rock collection. Dalbeattie is setting itself up as the Hay on Wye of Scotland with an expanding antiquarian book festival.

Stranraer, in the extreme west of the county, is the gateway to Larne and Northern Ireland. Here forested uplands cut by ravines form the hinterland to the Rhins Peninsula. Beneath its rocky spine are gardens where the influence of the mild Gulf Stream allows subtropical plants to prosper. Golf, sea, game and coarse fishing, visiting gardens, walking, discovering archaeology (The Twelve Apostles Stone Circle, dated from 2000 BC, is the largest in Scotland, near Dumfries), pony trekking, touring castles – all are available in abundance in this corner of Scotland.