Where to Stay in Dumfries and Galloway

Portpatrick is a painted harbour village on the far west coast, and for centuries it was the main port for mail and goods to Ireland. Today it’s the start of the Southern Upland Way, which runs 214 miles from the inner harbour to the North Sea. For a shorter walk, follow the cliff path south to the roofless tower of Dunskey Castle, or north to Killantringan Lighthouse and its sandy bay.

In the village, The Port Pantry on the harbour does breakfast, lunch and cake every day, and Smugglers Cove is a gift shop of little rooms you can lose an hour in. For a hotel, Fernhill sits above the village with harbour views from its restaurant. Three miles away, Knockinaam Lodge has ten bedrooms and its own private cove.

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South of Portpatrick, the Rhins narrow to a point at the Mull of Galloway, the most southerly place in Scotland. Robert Stevenson’s lighthouse of 1830 stands on the last cliff, and you can climb its 115 steps on the days it’s open. Seabirds nest on the cliffs below, and Gallie Craig, a turf-roofed coffee house built into the clifftop, looks across to Ireland.

On the way down, stop at Logan Botanic Garden, where tree ferns and palms grow outdoors in the warmth of the Gulf Stream. Stranraer, at the head of Loch Ryan, is the nearest town. The North West Castle Hotel there was built for the Arctic explorer Sir John Ross, and it has its own indoor curling rink.

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Galloway Forest Park is the largest forest park in Britain, and it was the first Dark Sky Park in the UK. On a clear, moonless night the stars here are astonishing. By day there’s Loch Trool under the Merrick, and Bruce’s Stone above it, where Robert the Bruce watched an English force break in 1307. The Raiders’ Road Forest Drive runs for ten miles past the Otter’s Pool, and is open to cars from April to October.

The best base inside the hills is The Clachan Inn at St John’s Town of Dalry, a village inn on the Southern Upland Way with six rooms and a very good kitchen. It’s open from Wednesday to Sunday. Red kites circle over Loch Ken close by, and the Galloway Kite Trail goes round the loch.

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Kirkcudbright is the Artists’ Town, a harbour of pastel-painted houses that has drawn painters for more than a century. Broughton House, pink-harled, was the home of E A Hornel, and the garden he made behind it runs down towards the river. The Harbour Cottage Gallery and The Whitehouse Gallery both show work you can take home, and Kirkcudbright Art Tours will walk you round with somebody who knows whose door is whose.

It’s a lovely town to stay in, because the fishing boats, the galleries and MacLellan’s Castle are all a few minutes’ walk apart. Paul Jones Bakery is the stop for a pie or a scone. The Selkirk Arms, on the High Street, is a townhouse hotel with a restaurant.

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East of Castle Douglas, the Solway shore is a run of estuaries, sandy bays and small villages below the hill of Criffel. Sandyhills Beach is a sheltered bay with a sea arch and a cave, and a coastal path leads on to Rockcliffe. At Southerness, a square white lighthouse of 1749 stands on the point.

Inland at New Abbey is Sweetheart Abbey, the red sandstone ruin that Lady Dervorguilla founded in memory of her husband, John Balliol. The Steamboat Inn at Carsethorn is a family-run inn on the shore, good for seafood and a Sunday lunch. This stretch is close enough to Dumfries to visit in a day, so you can stay in the town and have the coast as well.

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North of Dumfries, the Nith valley is quieter country of farms and woods. Ellisland Farm, on the river bank at Auldgirth, is the farm Burns built before he moved into town. Further up is Drumlanrig Castle, the Pink Palace, a 17th-century castle of pink sandstone with gardens and woodland to walk in. Thornhill, the village beside it, has a good independent bookshop, Chapters of Thornhill.

Friars Carse, at Auldgirth, is a country house hotel with 21 bedrooms, in grounds that slope down to the Nith. Carry on up the valley and you come to Crawick Multiverse, an old coal mine turned into a landscape of the universe, and to Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland, with its Museum of Lead Mining.

Moffat is an old spa town with a broad High Street, close to the motorway but tucked under the hills. A bronze ram stands on a fountain in the middle of the street, and the Moffat Toffee Shop has a wall of sweetie jars. The town keeps its street lights pointed downward for the sake of the night sky, so you can see the stars from the edge of town.

The great walk here is up beside the Grey Mare’s Tail, a waterfall of sixty metres on the road to Selkirk, to Loch Skeen, the highest loch in the Southern Uplands. Moffat House Hotel is on the High Street, in a house designed by the Adam family. The Annandale Arms is the other old hotel in town. It keeps shorter hours in winter, so ring ahead.

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