Terrific Travels in Dumfries & Galloway

For those of you who might be wondering just what "Dumfries & Galloway" is, I should explain that it is one of 32 council areas of Scotland.  We were previously in "The Borders", which is yet another area that borders northern England.  Dumfries & Galloway lies to the west of the Borders, and is located in the southwest area of Scotland, north of the Irish Sea.

It seems to be a forgotten area as we've talked with several Scots on our trip who, when asked about visiting this area, will answer that they "have never been".  Well, let me just say that they don't know what they are missing!

Robert Burns, a beloved Scottish poet and writer of Scottish folk songs, lived in Dumfries for several years prior to his death.   He is buried in a cemetery in the city and the house where he lived for the last few years of his life also exists as it was, and is open to the public to view.

So, of course, I added it on to our "to do" list and we headed there first thing after breakfast.  My GPS didn't seem to pick up the Museum (hey....it's free....what more can you ask?), but led us to the Robert Burns Center.  There was easy parking, but we soon realized that we were across the river from our intended destination, but it actually turned out to be the best way to see the sights! So we left the car in the lot and headed across the bridge to the center.

We crossed that footbridge, which was actually a timber bridge built in 1280, making this the oldest multi-spanned bridge in Scotland.  Once across, we headed to the Robert Burns House which wasn't too difficult to find.

The arrow pointed across the street to the actual house where Robert Burns had lived and died, on Mill Street.  (Bet you didn't have too much problem finding Marty in that photo.)

Inside, there were numerous items on display in the house, including original works by Burns himself.

Some of the items of interest were poems that he wrote in letters to people.  One of note is in a letter from Burns to his landlord, dated 21 June 1789, and it contains his poem, The Wounded Hare.

The house consisted of basically four rooms:  a parlor and kitchen downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs.

It was in this room where Robert Burns died at the very young age of 37, from what is believed to have been a weak heart. 

He was buried in the nearby cemetery with a simple stone.  In 1803, William Wordsworth and his wife looked for his grave and were very surprised to learn that it wasn't easily found.  So, in 1813, a number of prominent citizens launched an appeal to build a mausoleum, including the future King George IV.
The structure was completed in 1815, and, you must admit, it certainly is quite a grand structure.  In fact, it stands out clearly in the cemetery.

Inside of this monument lies the graves of Robert Burns and his wife.

The original stone is set in front.

There is certainly a wealth of things to do in Dumfries, but we had visited here several years ago,  and I planned this trip to take in some different sights, so we headed back to the car.

But, on the return route, we took this pedestrian bridge over the river.

Just look at this view from the bridge!

Walking back to the car, we found ourselves at the Robert Burns Center, which is where the GPS had originally directed us.  We decided that we might as well pop in.  

The center is actually an old mill, and it has a lovely museum upstairs, that tells the story of Robert Burns' connection to Dumfries, and it details his time in the city prior to his death.
There was an interesting diorama set up for the town of Dumfries as it would have looked when Burns lived there.

The details were amazing, with houses all built to scale, featuring miniatures of the actual buildings.  It brought to life the everyday existence in the time of Robert Burns.  How clever is that?

By now, I was feeling rather pleased that I had directed us to the wrong place!  It was time to move on, but before I move forward here,  let me post just a couple more photos.

How's that for amazing?
Now, onto the New Abbey Corn Mill.

I know what you are thinking....another mill?  But this one is different.  This was unique because the miller's residence was actually attached to the mill.  We learned that this was rarely the case because the mill itself can be quite volatile, but when this residence was added on, the walls were built nearly 2 ft wide to protect from any type of fire.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here.  Let me begin by saying that, once again,  we were greeted by an enthusiastic guide, and directed upstairs to watch a short film about the mill.  The information was quite similar to what we learned at Preston Mill regarding oats and how they are milled,  so we already felt like experts in the grinding of grain.

But, one thing that had us confused was why this was called a Corn Mill when it was actually used to grind oats.  The guide explained to us that in Scotland, the word corn is used as a generic form for any type of grain.  I had never known that, but now the name made perfect sense.

The basic mechanism of the mill was similar to that at Preston.  A water wheel, which turned by the flow of water that came from a Mill Pond on the property.

The top floor had the pulley mechanism to pull the bags of grain to the top where they were loaded into shoots.

The shoots then fed the grain into the grinders.

The ground product was put through a sieve so that the larger pieces would be separated to go through the process all over again.

Behind the grinders, in a separate room, stands the feed for the coke to heat up the grain for drying. 

Above that furnace is the grain, about 3 inches thick, and stirred on occasion in order to assure complete drying prior to grinding.

The earliest mill here was built by Cistercian monks in 1273.  They were primarily vegetarian and depended upon grains for food.  As time went on,  mills were extremely important to communities as 90% of what they ate came from the mill.
The farmer collected the grain and gave it to the miller to be ground.  As payment, a portion of the grain was given to the miller.  The miller, himself, had to pay for his rent with the milled grain, so he was dependent upon the farmers for his living.  So you can see why a mill was a valuable asset in the community.
After touring the mill, we walked up to Sweetheart Abbey, where we had stopped in several years ago while driving through.  I must say that it does look much more brilliant in the sunshine.

And, don't these white houses add such charm to the village?

The only downside is that they stand on an extremely busy street.  I'm not sure that I'd like cars whipping by my front door at such fast speeds all day long. But, you must admit, it sure makes a pretty picture!

Continuing our travels, we made our way south and then turned west to drive along the southern coast, until we reached Rockcliffe.

We parked the car and looked at the trail map, and tried to decide just where we should start.  I'm not sure why I haven't caught onto deciphering the trail maps, but I am honestly hopeless.  I suppose that I have a fear that I'm going to end up in someone's back yard rather than on the trail.  (That actually did happen one time, and the owner wasn't exactly thrilled.) So we now have no shame, and we have no issues just asking someone if they can direct us.

Luckily, today's trail was very busy, so we had no difficulty finding our route. And I'm happy to say that we did not have to share the trail with any furry friends.  Well.....almost. There were some Highland cows but they were happy to stay at a distance.

When we finally reached the water, the views were quite stunning.

 We walked about a mile until we reached the little village of Kippford.

Right on the edge of town stands a little tea shop, called The Ark, and what a clever spot for them to have set up a business.  The place was hopping! 

So, we decided to stop in and have our usual afternoon treat:  Tea and Scones with jam and cream.

Let me just say, this place did not disappoint.

We left smiling as we decided to retrace our steps rather than make the circular route because the views were so beautiful.

When we finally made it back to the car it was 3:20.  I had originally planned for us to drive to Orchardton Tower, but had noted that it had its last entry at 3:30 and closed at 4:00.  It would be impossible to make the entry time, but we decided to make the drive and just look at the tower from a distance since that option is always available.

If anything, the drive was very scenic.  Sheep scattered about on hillsides, separated by rows and rows of rock walls.

Pretty as a picture for sure!

I could tell that this tower was way off the beaten path.  So much so, that when I instructed Marty to turn down a particular road, he said to me, "Are you sure about that?" and I said  "yes".  (Oh he of little faith.)

The road was barely wider than the car, but, luckily, no one was out and about on it.  And, it wasn't difficult to spot in the distance.

This tower is the only round tower house in Scotland, built around 1756.

And guess what?  The doors were open!  How lucky was that?
We were able to climb right up to the top!

The views were magnificent!

And it was just a wee bit breezy up there.

We left very happy that we had decided to make the drive despite the time, as it had certainly played to our advantage.

But now it was time to head to our hotel which is in Castle Douglas.  I will admit that it is on a very busy street, but the room is lovely and the staff is exceedingly friendly.

We checked in and headed to the restaurant for some relaxation.

You needn't tell me that I look tired.  But hey.....after all of today's activities...wouldn't you?

Until tomorrow!

On the Road to Dumfries

Last night was our last in Kelso, so we had decided to head over and check out the Abbey in the morning, prior to eating breakfast.   And am I ever glad that we did!  Just look at how beautifully the sun reflects off the back of it.

Walking around, it is easy to see just how commanding a structure this had once been.

Next to it stands a beautiful war memorial, devoted to both World Wars, with inscriptions of the names of those men who perished from Kelso.

It was definitely worth making the effort to check this out prior to leaving.

We packed up the car and headed to Selkirk, where I was expecting to visit Sir William Scott's Courtroom and the Haliwell's House Museum.  The town is interesting as it is part of a hill, and it offers some beautiful views of the hills.  We easily found a place to park, which just so happened to be across from a cemetery that had an unusual structure with a bell hanging in the middle.  So, we climbed up the walk to check it out,  and soon realized that this was the place where William Wallace had been proclaimed Guardian of Scotland in 1298.

That was certainly an unexpected find.

And, just look at the view from that spot!

Spectacular!

We headed down the hill to the Courtroom, but noticed that it wasn't open.  After checking a poster on the front of the building, I realized that the hours had changed over night, and as of today, it is open at noon, instead of 10:00 am.  So, I took a couple photos

and we decided to forego the second museum as we didn't want to wait an hour for it to open, and certainly didn't want to wait two hours for the courtroom.

So, we headed along the route that I had chosen.  Actually, I had hoped to pick up some sort of map from the information center, but that wasn't open for another hour either.  I did have my trusty atlas that goes on every trip, and we were using an app called Here We Go (minus "steelers"), which had been working fairly well up until this point.

We drove down to Ettrickbridge, which was a lovely little village, located on a very quiet, and narrow road.   The views were quite pretty as we then headed to Ettrick.

Sheep lined the hillside, and we pretty much had the road to ourselves.  We were traveling around, when Marty spotted a sheep standing on the road. 

We must have scared her, because she stood staring at us, with her lip was quivering before she jaunted up the hill.  I was looking for the village of Ettrick as I had read that it offered some lovely hikes as well as the Ettrick Marshes which were supposed to be stunning.

We stopped at some little tiny shop, and the owner mentioned that Ettrick was just a mile down the road, but to beware of the lorries that were removing wood from the forest along this narrow road.  I'm sure thankful for his warning!

We followed the sign to Ettrick, and this is what we found:

A sign.  There was a Hogg Memorial museum  across the street from the sign, but not another building anywhere in site.  Luckily, it was only a mile from the main road, so we just backtracked and  continued our journey.

And that is when the Lorries began to show up.

One after another, barreling toward us on the road, and whipping unexpectedly around corners.  It certainly made the drive a bit more interesting!  Or, should I say stressful?  Well, at least for me.  Marty seemed entirely in control of the situation, just cautious at every turn.  

Which was certainly in his favor since we not only saw a black cow on the road, happily munching grass at the base of a speed limit sign, but we also happened upon two very large sheep, sitting very much in the opposite lane, contentedly chewing their cud and looking at us as if to question why we were there.   This was in minutes of the lorries rushing by.  Thankfully we weren't both rounding the corner at the same time, because, let's face it......something would have had to give, and I have the feeling that the sheep wouldn't have fared well. What an adventure!

Not too far along, we happened past a Buddhist Temple.  Not exactly something someone would have expected to see in an extremely remote spot in Scotland.  I had read about it on a Scottish Facebook site, but had no idea that it was in this particular area.  We just stopped in for a minute, and to use the facilities since it was obvious that we wouldn't be finding any anywhere soon. 

Finally, we found our destination, which was Hoddom Castle Karavan park entrance, and we began walking in search of the Salmon Trail.

Luckily, there was a posted map that Marty took a photo of so that we could get our bearings, because often, at times, it can be difficult to establish just where the trail is.  

And this one actually took us around the perimeter of the golf course.  Luckily, no one was playing golf.

This was Marty living his dream.....Golf course on the left....Salmon stream on the right.  Could it get any better than this?

Oh...and I forgot to add.....Castle at a distance.

Pretty spectacular.

We finally came to the bridge so that we could cross to the other side as part of the trail.

And, there it was!  The Salmon Trail.

We walked along the path, keeping our eye on the water for Salmon

and spotting an occasional interesting structure along the way.  This one is a fishing fly that one could sit upon.  How clever is that? 

And if you look closely here, you can see a seal eyeing a Salmon, as well as an eagle swooping down to eat one.  

Well...gee....if that's the case....no wonder we couldn't spot any!

We saw an eagle, and this lovely bird which stood there for quite awhile waiting.

and  people floating down the river on kayaks,

 but no Salmon. Although Marty seems to think that he spied one.   (Does that surprise you?)

The  walk was lovely and well going out of way to find.  The return loop takes you by Hoddom castle.

.

It actually shares ground with a caravan park, and some interesting little cottages that one can apparently stay in.

That's the first time I've seen something like that!

Next step on the agenda was the Devil's Porridge Museum. Now, the story behind this museum is fascinating.  

During World War I, Great Britain found itself low on ammunition and certainly doomed in fighting the Germans if they didn't come up with some sort of plan.  Lloyd George came up with a scheme to build a factory, which spread over nine miles from Eastriggs to Gretna.  Actually, we were told that both of those villages were actually planned communities, built during this time, to house the workers of the factory.  Devil's Porridge is actually the crude explosive paste that was made in this facility, thereby giving the name to the museum. 

The sole aim was to make cordite propellant which fired the soldier's bullets and shells. And, women were recruited from all over Scotland to work in the factories.  It was considered to be a great opportunity for women because they were housed in comfortable accommodations and paid excellent wages in comparison to the normal wage for women at the time. 

But, when I read what the women actually did, I was shocked!

They had hands in Nitre to make nitric acid.  They burned sulfur to make sulfuric acid.  They manned a glycerin distillery to make their own glycerine.  And then, they combined the glycerine with sulfuric acid and nitric acid to make nitroglycerine.

Honestly, I was stunned to see the photos of these women having hands on experience with these dangerous chemicals! 

I shudder just thinking about it!

But in the end, the production of cordite is what saved the Britains and helped them to win the war against Germany.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, that the reason that this location was picked because it tended to be overcast most of the time, and because the water is shallow through the flats so no submarines or boats could get near.  

Interestingly enough, all of the equipment was dismantled after the war, as Britain never dreamed that they would be involved with yet another altercation initiated by Germany.  A few ammunition faciltites popped up in this same area during World War II, but nothing of the magnitude of the cordite plant.

Pretty fascinating, don't you think?  I can tell you that I was completely unaware of this factory, and I find it interesting how popped up, then disappeared, and I wouldn't have known about it all if there wasn't a museum devoted in telling the story of these many heroic women.  Kudos to them! 

After the tour, we enjoyed some tea and a scone, which just so happened to be in a cafe in the museum.

And that is just one more thing that I love about Scotland! 

We had a great chat with the staff at the museum, and the next thing I knew, they were advising regarding visiting Ruthwell church where I knew that a Celtic Cross stood inside.  But I wasn't sure what hours it would be opened.  They convinced me that the key was probably somewhere nearby, and that I should just ask for it if the church was locked.

When we arrived, the church was locked, but there was a sign directing one to the bungalow next door, and sure enough, there was a little box with the key inside.  So we let ourselves in.

And there it was.....Standing stately in a special alcove:  The Ruthwell Cross, believed to stem from the 8th century. 

Truly amazing, and I was so happy that we were able to get inside to see it.

After returning the key, we headed to our final destinations, which is an Inn on the outskirts of Dumfries.  We were greeted by an extremely enthusiastic and entertaining woman, who showed us our room. We ended up walking a mile into town for dinner, and on the way back, I was able to take the photo of the place all aglow. 

Pretty awesome, isn't it?

We'll be exploring Dumfries and Galloway for a couple of days.  I'll be sure to keep you posted!