Dumfries & Galloway (Slow Travel)
Including Newcastle, Hadrian’s Wall & the Coast
Dumfries and Galloway Slow Travel guide. Expert local insights and holiday tips featuring Moffat, Langholm, Gretna Green, Dumfries, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbright, Wigtown, Stranraer, Mull of Galloway and Robert Burns. Also covers walking, wildlife watching, birdwatching, accommodation, restaurants, castles, distilleries, food and festivals.
Edition: 3
Number of pages: 320
Related products
About this book
Part of Bradt’s distinctive, award-winning series of ‘Slow’ travel guides to UK regions, the new, extensively updated third edition of Dumfries & Galloway (Slow Travel) is the sole full-blown guidebook to this beguiling southwest corner of Scotland. With intimate detail and insider tips from two southern Scotland experts, it reveals one of the country’s best-kept secrets through lively descriptions, historical anecdotes and hand-picked accommodation recommendations.
Dumfries and Galloway is ever more alluring to discerning visitors in search of grand views, peace and isolation, bustling harbourside towns, craft shops and galleries, cafés and restaurants, mountains and coast, wildlife and outdoor pursuits… all ingredients for a successful UK break. Even the weather defies expectation, the far west being warmed by the Gulf Stream so gardens harbour palm trees and southern hemisphere plants.
The region is explored in depth, from Eskdale in the east to Scotland’s southern tip at the Mull of Galloway, via Annandale, Nithsdale, Dumfries, The Stewartry, The Machars and Moors, and The Rhins. Visit Scotland’s highest village (with the country’s highest micro-brewery) in the morning, a deserted sandy beach in the afternoon, and a Dark Sky Park, gazing at the stars, in the evening.
Wildlife lovers will be in their element as all of Scotland’s ‘big five’ iconic species can be seen: golden eagle, red squirrel, harbour seal, red deer and European otter. In the surrounding waters look out for minke whales, harbour porpoise and dolphins, while Caerlaverock at the eastern end of the region plays host each year to the staggering annual spectacle of thousands of barnacle geese settling on the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve.
Human-related curiosities complement natural wonder. Samye Ling was the first Tibetan monastery established in the west; the Famous Blacksmith’s Shop at Gretna Green still hosts a thousand marriages a year – and not just eloping couples either; Hallmuir Chapel is a WWII Ukrainian place of worship in the Dumfriesshire Dales; and Dumfries itself contains the house where Robert Burns, Scotland’s national bard, spent his last three years. Whatever your interest, Bradt’s Dumfries & Galloway (Slow Travel) is the ideal companion for a successful trip.
Before ordering ebooks from us, please check out our ebook information.
About the Author
Donald Greig first visited Dumfries and Galloway when five weeks old and has been returning ever since. Some of his earliest memories are from the region: bluebells in spring in Carstramon Wood at Gatehouse-of-Fleet, beach holidays at Sandgreen and Rockcliffe, fish and chips by the harbour at Kirkcudbright… simple pleasures that continue to attract visitors today as they did 40 years ago. From 2013–23 he lived in Moffat in the northeast corner of the region, before migrating 40 minutes into the Scottish Borders region. A travel publisher by trade, including seven years as Bradt’s managing director, he has spent much of his life globetrotting but is now settled in Scotland’s Southern Uplands, where he juggles writing assignments for a range of national publications (including Scotland on Sunday, Independent on Sunday, Wanderlust, BBC Countryfile and The List) with community and landowner engagement across southern Scotland.
Darren Flint is a relative newcomer to the area, settling in Dumfries and Galloway in 2013, yet he was hooked from the outset. Over the subsequent decade, he helped with a host of community and environmental projects, from caring for Castle Loch nature reserve to developing new play parks, running a B&B and developing a new long-distance path. Now rooted in Scotland’s Southern Uplands, he is an avid naturalist with a particular fascination for butterflies and – along with getting his hands dirty with practical habitat-conservation work out in the field – he likes nothing better than donning his walking boots and uncovering those hidden corners we all dream about. Flint has co-written two walking guides to the region, as well as Bradt’s Dumfries & Galloway (Slow Travel).
Additional Information
Table of ContentsGOING SLOW IN DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY
1 ANNANDALE & ESKDALE
2 NITHSDALE
3 DUMFRIES & THE NITH ESTUARY
4 THE STEWARTRY
5 THE MACHARS & THE MOORS
6 THE RHINS
ACCOMMODATION
INDEX