One of the places we visited for the first time during our recent trip down to Dumfries and Galloway was the town of Newton Stewart. It fits the bill for me as a good town as it has a lovely river running through it – the River Cree. Unfortunately like many such towns the river has fairly recently got too close and personal to the inhabitants, flooding quite badly.

It was another blue sky day, we were really lucky with the weather.

What more can you ask for? As well as the river there’s a great old bridge too. I grew up in a town that has a very similar bridge although that one goes over the River Leven, some of my happiest moments have been when I’ve been hanging over such bridges, scrutinising the water for fish, or watching the hoards of starlings doing that magical air dancing. Well that’s what they used to do at Dumbarton bridge anyway.

Below you can see what the town and bridge looked like in 2012 when the town flooded. It looks terrifying.

If you’re interested in seeing what the surrounding area looks like you might like to take a look at Vanessa Dixon’s dashcam video, Creetown to Newton Stewart although it takes about ten minutes to reach Newton Stewart there is some nice scenery along the way.