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The Kirkcudbright Town Trail walk
A walk · Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright – Harbour, Castle and the Artists' Houses

About 0.6 miles on foot.

Harbour Square car parkStartMacLellan's CastleWhere you turn

Kirkcudbright is a harbour town on the Dee that painters took to more than a century ago, and it's small enough to see on foot in an hour.

The town trail is a level loop of about a kilometre from the harbour, past a ruined castle, the houses where the artists lived and worked, the old Tolbooth and the town's museum and galleries.

Time
Under an hour with stops: a loop of about a kilometre, a little over half a mile.
The path
Level streets and pavements, with no climb.
Where to start
The Harbour Square car park, beside the harbour. No charge.
When to go
All year, at any hour. The museum, the galleries, the castle and the houses each keep their own hours.
Children
Short and level. Open water at the quay.
Toilets
Public toilets at Harbour Square.

The walk

Start at Harbour Square, the car park beside the quay where the fishing boats tie up on the Dee. The square lies over an old tidal creek that once ran into the river here. Close by is MacLellan's Castle, a tall grey ruin of the 16th century that stands over the middle of the town.

From there the trail takes in Broughton House, built in the 1730s and later the home of the painter E A Hornel, and Greengate, where the artists Jessie M King and E A Taylor lived and worked. It goes on past the Tolbooth, which is now an art centre, the old Sheriff Court House, the Stewartry Museum on St Mary Street and Kirkcudbright Galleries in the former Town Hall, then comes back to the harbour. It's a level loop of about a kilometre, a little over half a mile, all on pavements.

The walking takes a quarter of an hour, so how long you spend depends on how many doors you step inside. The museum, the galleries and the houses each keep their own hours.

If it rains

It's a town walk on pavements, with the museum, the Tolbooth and the Galleries to step into when a shower comes through.

Before you go

  1. Book accommodation nearby

    If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.

    Wren's NestPortpatrickWren's NestSleeps 2Rose Blair Lodge42 miles awayRose Blair LodgeSleeps 2Heritage Coachman Lodge42 miles awayHeritage Coachman LodgeSleeps 4Fern Forest House42 miles awayFern Forest HouseSleeps 6
Find out more

For further reading, before you go.