South of Scotland Dark Sky Festival

On a clear night in the south of Scotland you can see over 7,000 stars with the naked eye, and the Milky Way right across the sky. The first South of Scotland Dark Sky Festival makes the most of it, with ten days of stargazing, night walks and astronomy talks across Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders. You could join a red deer safari at dusk near Kirkcudbright or sit down to a dark sky tasting menu in the town. Or simply look up from the Galloway Forest Park, the first place in the UK to be named a Gold Tier Dark Sky Park. The festival runs from 9 to 18 October and each event is booked on its own through the Scotland Starts Here website.