Hidden Scotland
Sign in

Villages
in Dumfries and Galloway.

It’s 20:59 in Dumfries and Galloway.
Dumfries and Galloway

Book towns and painted harbours.

Dumfries and Galloway's towns each have their own story. There's Scotland's National Book Town at Wigtown, a harbour town of painted houses at Kirkcudbright full of artists, and a painted harbour at Portpatrick where the Southern Upland Way begins. Moffat is an old spa town with a broad street, and Dumfries is where Burns lived his last years. Just over the border, runaway couples still marry at Gretna Green.

Wigtown→
Portpatrick→
Kirkcudbright→
Dumfries→
Moffat→
Whithorn→
Gretna Green→
Garlieston Mulberry Harbour→
Village of the day19 hours ago

Portpatrick.

A painted harbour on the Rhins, and mile nought of the Southern Upland Way.

Read about it
Did you know17 hours agoWritten byLouis D. HallRead Louis’s piece

Moffat, a town in the Southern Uplands of Dumfries and Galloway, was the first in the UK to be named a Dark Sky Town.

‘If you head northwest up the river Annan, you come across Moffat, the UK’s first ‘Dark Sky Town’ set in the Southern Uplands. With its own distillery and at the crossroads of three national trails, it’s a great spot for unrushed explorers and star gazers alike.’

Written byLouis D. HallRead Louis’s pieceSee Moffat · Dumfries and Galloway
Lunch15 hours agoDumfries and GallowayKings Coffee and Books400 yardsDumfries and GallowayFlourish500 yardsDumfries and GallowayThe Globe Inn, Dumfries500 yards

Lunch near Dumfries.

The three closest tables: Kings Coffee and Books, Flourish and The Globe Inn, Dumfries.

See Dumfries
Quiz14 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 06Issue 06Spring / Summer 2023

The name of Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town, may come from two old words meaning what?

Villages12 hours ago

Wigtown.

Scotland's National Book Town, a small town on the Machars with bookshops around its square and a book festival every autumn.

See the place
Did you know9 hours ago

The famous ram at Moffat, in Dumfries and Galloway, has no ears.

In 1875 William Colvin, a local businessman, gave the town a bronze ram on a sandstone drinking fountain, to mark its long association with sheep farming and the wool trade. The tale goes that at the unveiling a farmer remarked that it had nae lugs, Scots for no ears, and the ram has none. The sculptor, William Brodie, also made the statue of Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh, and the ram has become a symbol of the town.

Photograph: Anna Ka on Google MapsSee Moffat · Dumfries and Galloway
Villages7 hours ago

Kirkcudbright.

A harbour town of painted houses that has been full of artists for a century.

See the place
Villages5 hours ago

Whithorn.

A small town on the Machars where St Ninian founded Scotland's first Christian church, with a long main street, the Pend and the priory.

See the place
Quiz4 hours ago

The Dumfriesshire village of Ae probably takes its name from an Old Norse word meaning what?

Villages2 hours ago

Gretna Green.

The first village over the border, where runaway couples married at an anvil.

See the place
Did you know41 minutes ago

The old bridge over the Nith at Dumfries is named for Devorgilla, but it is not hers.

Devorgilla, Lady of Galloway, is said to have bridged the river at Dumfries in the 1260s. No trace of her bridge has ever been found, and the one standing today, which carries her name, dates from the middle of the 1400s.

See Dumfries · Dumfries and Galloway

You are up to date.

The next post goes up at 21:59, and a new day of them starts tomorrow morning. Or have the best of it in your inbox each morning in the Daily.