Logan Botanic Garden and the Mull of Galloway – A Level Day
A day.
The route
A level day down the Rhins of Galloway for anyone with a wheelchair, a walking frame or a pushchair.
Logan's palms, tree ferns and lily pond sit along a marked route for wheelchairs and scooters, with lunch in the garden's Potting Shed. At the very end of the road, the Mull of Galloway lighthouse has a ramp into its exhibition and a viewing platform over the cliffs.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
If you need one, book one of Logan Botanic Garden's two free wheelchairs or its mobility scooter before you go, on 01776 860231 or at logan@rbge.org.uk.
The day
The Rhins
A morning on the level paths of an exotic garden, among palms and tree ferns, with lunch in its own bistro. The afternoon is at the very end of the road, where the lighthouse stands over the cliffs of Scotland's most southerly point.
About five and a half hours
Logan Botanic Garden
An attraction
Logan Botanic Garden by Port Logan has a free car park at its gate, and it opens at 10am. The reception desk is about 20 metres from the car park on a wide, mostly level path, and tickets are £10.80 for an adult at the time of writing (£12 with a Gift Aid donation), with children 15 and under and carers free. Ask there for the map with the route for wheelchairs and mobility scooters. Much of the garden is flat, on wide paths of compacted gravel, and the route takes in the palms, the tree ferns and the Walled Garden's lily pond. The steep upper slopes and the stepped path to the Woodland Garden are off it. The Conservatory is up a gentle slope that some manual wheelchair users need a hand with. Benches come at regular intervals, and there's an accessible toilet near the entrance. Only assistance dogs are allowed. Lunch is in the garden's own Potting Shed bistro, through a wide gate inside the garden, from 10.30am to 4pm (3pm in November): home-cooked soups, sandwiches and homemade cakes, with large-print menus, accessible toilets and baby changing.
21 min by car
Mull of Galloway Lighthouse
An attraction
It's 21 minutes' drive south through Drummore to the Mull of Galloway, Scotland's most southerly point, and the last five miles are single track with passing places. Parking is free in the big car park at Gallie Craig, a short walk below the lighthouse, and there are disabled spaces in the main car park and up at the lighthouse itself. The exhibition in the old engine room and fuel store is open every day from 11am to 5pm until Sunday 1 November, entry by donation, and there's a ramp for a wheelchair: ask the staff member on duty. To the right as you come into the lighthouse yard, a viewing platform a wheelchair can use looks down the cliffs to the foghorn. The tower is 115 steps, so it's not part of this day. Dogs on a lead are welcome in the exhibition and round the headland, never in the tower. There are disabled toilets at the RSPB visitor centre and at the Gallie Craig coffee house, which opens Saturday to Wednesday from 10.30am, with last food orders at 4pm. Take care on the clifftops in wind and rain: the exhibition may shut in severe weather.
If it rains
Logan's Conservatory and the Potting Shed are under a roof, and so is the lighthouse exhibition; the garden paths and the platform over the cliffs are out in the weather. In heavy rain, linger over lunch and in the exhibition, which may shut in severe weather.
Photograph by Amanda C via Google