Castles of Galloway – Threave by Boat, Abbey and Round Tower
A day by car, from Castle Douglas and back.
The route
A good deal of Galloway's history still stands within an easy loop of Castle Douglas.
This day follows the story from the Black Douglases, the Lords of Galloway, whose stronghold was an island in the River Dee, to the lairds who raised their own towers after them. The McCullochs built Cardoness, on the edge of Gatehouse of Fleet, and the Cairns family built Orchardton, near Palnackie. In between stands Dundrennan, the Cistercian abbey near Kirkcudbright where Mary, Queen of Scots spent her last night in Scotland. It's about an hour and twenty minutes at the wheel in all.
Before you go
Book a Threave ticket for 10am from Historic Environment Scotland, parking at Kelton Mains by 9.45am for the 15-minute walk to the jetty, and check its Threave page that morning: the island usually opens from April to October, the last boat out sails at about 4pm in summer, and the boat needs fair weather.
Book a Dundrennan Abbey ticket from Historic Environment Scotland for about 2pm, after its lunchtime closure from 12.30pm to 1pm: it is usually open daily from April to September, with the last entry at 4pm.
The day
Galloway
A day among the ruins of Galloway's old lords, from a short boat ride to an island fortress to a round tower in a field, with lunch by the river in Gatehouse of Fleet between them. It starts and ends in Castle Douglas.
1 hr 19 min at the wheelAbout 45 miles
Threave Castle
An attraction
It's 4 minutes' drive from Castle Douglas to the car park at Kelton Mains, then 15 minutes' walk on a mostly level path to the jetty and a boat over the River Dee. Archibald the Grim built the tower in the 1370s, and James II's men besieged it in 1455 and broke the Black Douglases. The ground floor is shut for conservation, and only assistance dogs may cross. The whole day works from April to September: the abbey is shut from October, and Threave, Cardoness and the Mill from November to March.
20 min by car
Gatehouse of Fleet
Drive 20 minutes west on the A75 to Gatehouse of Fleet, a planned 18th-century town with a cotton-milling past. One of its mills, the Mill on the Fleet, stands on the riverbank and is free to wander, with the town's tourist information, its story on the exhibition floor and over 20,000 second-hand books upstairs. Lunch is at the Mill Café, soup and home baking with a terrace beside the river. For a sit-down lunch, the Masonic Arms on Ann Street serves from noon, until 2.30pm on weekdays.
3 min by car
Cardoness Castle
An attraction
It's 3 minutes' drive on to Cardoness Castle, the McCullochs' tower house on its steep little hill beside the A75. They built it in the later 1400s, and their feud with the Gordons, who took it over, ended when Sir Godfrey McCulloch shot a Gordon neighbour and was beheaded in Edinburgh in 1697. The tower's inside is shut for conservation, so this is the grounds, the outside and the visitor centre. It usually opens only from Thursday to Saturday: on other days, drive from Gatehouse straight to Dundrennan, 28 minutes.
25 min by car
Dundrennan Abbey
An attraction
Dundrennan is 25 minutes' drive east, through Kirkcudbright and along the A711. Fergus of Galloway founded this Cistercian house in 1142 with monks from Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire, and its transepts still stand, the hard grey sandstone holding its carving well. Mary, Queen of Scots slept here for the last time on Scottish soil in May 1568, before crossing the Solway to England. The abbey shuts from 12.30pm to 1pm, the last entry is usually at 4pm, and access to the vaults and the graveyard beside it is restricted.
16 min by car
Orchardton Tower
An attraction
It's 16 minutes' drive north-east through Auchencairn, then down a narrow lane off the A711 to a small car park. Orchardton is Scotland's only round tower house, built by John Cairns soon after he was granted these lands in 1456, some two centuries after round towers had gone out of fashion. It's free, and Historic Environment Scotland lists the outside only: walk round the tower and the low ruined walls beside it, and look up at its corbelled top. Castle Douglas is 11 minutes' drive north-west on the B736.
If it rains
Most of this day is out of doors. The boat to Threave crosses only when the weather allows; Dundrennan is a roofless abbey, Cardoness is seen from outside, and Orchardton stands on open ground. The Mill on the Fleet in Gatehouse is all under a roof, with its exhibition, its bookshop, a shop of work by the region's artists and makers, and the Mill Café: give Gatehouse longer. Broughton House, the painter E. A. Hornel's home and gallery on the High Street in Kirkcudbright, is on the road between Cardoness and Dundrennan; the house usually opens from late March to October, every day but Tuesday, 10am to 4.30pm.
Worth a detour
- Kirkcudbright
The road to Dundrennan runs straight through Kirkcudbright (say kir-COO-bree), the artists' town beside the River Dee, with its High Street painted pink, ochre, blue and green. Park near the harbour and walk up to Broughton House, the painter E. A. Hornel's home, which usually opens every day but Tuesday from late March to October, or to the ruined MacLellan's Castle, usually open daily from April to September and shut from 12.30pm to 1pm. It adds only about 2 minutes at the wheel, and the time you spend comes out of Cardoness, which can be dropped. Kirkcudbright has a day of its own.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Dumfries and Galloway.
Photographs by peterdinsmore; Freddie Cobb via Google