I’ve been away in Dumfries and Galloway for the past four days, and I thought I would be able to blog from there. We were near Dalbeattie for a couple of days and then had a couple of days in Wigtown – known as Scotland’s book town. WiFi was supposed to be available from both locations, well technically it was I suppose but it was soooooo slooooow – we just gave up on it. I don’t know how people who actually live in that remote part of south-west Scotland cope with modern life.

Anyway, it was the furthest south we had ever been in Scotland and we spent the four days running around like mad things so in the end we were glad to get home for a rest. We had a great time though and the weather was brilliant. We visited two famous gardens that I’ve wanted to see for years – Logan Botanics and Threave Gardens. I must admit that plants were purchased, I’ll squeeze them in somewhere!

Town wise we visited Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbright, Whithorn, all in beautiful sunshine but of course the day we went to the Mull of Galloway, the southernmost part of Scotland there was a sea mist there, so we weren’t able to see the Irish coast just miles away, nor even the Isle of Man.

We did make full use of our Historic Scotland membership – well we like to get our money’s worth! We visited Sweetheart Abbey, Glenluce Abbey, St Ninian’s Chapel, St Ninian’s cave, New Abbey Cornmill, Orchardton Tower, Chapel Finian, Dundrennan Abbey, Caerlaverock Castle, Cardoness Castle, Carsluith Castle. The towns of Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbright, Gatehouse of Fleet, Whithorn, Isle of Whithorn (not an island)and Wigtown.

Books were purchased too, but not where you would expect. I only bought two books in Wigtown. I think it must be a real disappointment to people who have travelled a long way to get there as there aren’t that many bookshops and two of them were closed the two days we were there, very annoying as one of them had a book displayed in the window that I wanted to buy.

When we get around to sorting through the photos I’ll do some blogposts on where we visited. I really enjoyed the change of scene but I was so glad to get home, I was worried that even four days away in the heat we’ve been having would have frazzled my garden, luckily there was heavy rain on and off yesterday, we missed it all but could see how heavy it had been, especially when we saw a side street in Ayrshire under water and people on their doorsteps looking very worried.