Kirkcudbright – a Castle, Hornel's House and the Galleries
A day on foot, from Harbour Square, Kirkcudbright and back.
The route
Kirkcudbright (say kir-coo-bree) sits at the mouth of the Dee on the Galloway coast, and the brown signs on the roads into town call it the Artists' Town.
Painters have worked in Kirkcudbright since the 1880s, when some of the Glasgow Boys, a group of Scottish artists, based themselves here. One of them, E. A. Hornel, made his home and garden on the High Street, and the illustrator Jessie M. King lived and worked just along the road. This is a slow day of pictures and old stone, much of it indoors, with lunch among the paintings and the fishing boats to finish. You leave the car once, and the whole day is about a mile on foot.
Before you go
Book a table for lunch at the Galleries Café
Book a table at the Galleries Café on 07352 062153 for about 1pm if you start at MacLellan's Castle for its 10am opening, on any day from mid-April to September except the day Broughton House is shut (a Tuesday at the time of writing).
The day
Kirkcudbright
A slow walk through the middle of the old town, with every stop a few minutes from the last. It starts and ends by the harbour, with a painter's house and garden before lunch and the town's own pictures after it.
MacLellan's Castle
Park at Harbour Square, or on the street on a second Sunday from May to September, when a car boot sale is held there. It's a 4-minute walk to MacLellan's Castle, the roofless tower house in the town centre, open from 10am between April and September but shut for lunch from 12.30 to 1. Built from about 1577, it has a vaulted kitchen to explore and a great hall to climb to, where a spyhole behind the fireplace is said to have let the laird eavesdrop. Allow half an hour.
2 min on foot
Broughton House & Garden
An attraction
Walk 2 minutes to Broughton House, the home from 1901 of the Glasgow Boy E. A. Hornel. His paintings hang in the gallery he added, and the Japanese-inspired garden he made with his sister backs onto the Dee. It opens at 10am; allow an hour and a half. The house has been shut on Tuesdays; check the National Trust for Scotland's site for this year's days.
3 min on foot
Kirkcudbright Tolbooth
It's a 3-minute walk to the Tolbooth on the High Street, built between 1625 and 1629 as the town's council chamber, court and jail. John Paul Jones, later a hero of the American navy, was held prisoner here, and the jougs, a prisoner's iron collar, still hang on the outside wall. Upstairs, one floor tells the building's story and another shows work by local artists. It's free and opens at 11am, but check its Sunday hours before you go. It's the stop to leave out if the morning runs long.
6 min on foot
Kirkcudbright Galleries
It's a 6-minute walk to the Kirkcudbright Galleries on St Mary Street, in the town hall of 1879, and lunch comes first, in the café: soup, sandwiches, jacket potatoes and a few hot dishes, with lunches served until 2pm. Then give the galleries an hour and a half. The town's own collection of more than 600 works takes in paintings by Peploe and the Faed family and Jessie M. King's silver jewellery for Liberty, with changing exhibitions besides. Entry is free, and the galleries stay open until 5pm.
5 min on foot
Kirkcudbright harbour
It's a 5-minute walk to the harbour, where the fishing boats still land scallops and queenies, the small queen scallops; mind the quay's edge in the wet. Walk along to the white cottages at the end of Castle Bank, painted many times from across the river. One of them, once the Ship Inn, was saved by townspeople and artists and opened in 1957 as Harbour Cottage Gallery, with changing exhibitions from March to December; its hours vary with each show. The car is a few minutes' walk back.
If it rains
Most of this day is under a roof: Broughton House, the Tolbooth and the Galleries, with lunch indoors in the Galleries' café. The garden at Broughton House is the part the rain spoils, and its paving is very uneven and sometimes slippery, but part of it can be seen from Hornel's studio. MacLellan's Castle lost its roof long ago, and only its vaulted ground floor is under cover. If it is pouring at the end of the day, leave the harbour for another time and go straight from the Galleries to the Stewartry Museum, two minutes along St Mary Street. It's free and full of the old county's history, and it closes at 4pm (1pm to 4pm on Sundays), so leave the Galleries by about 3.30pm.
Worth a detour
- Dundrennan Abbey
Dundrennan Abbey, a Cistercian abbey founded in 1142, is about 12 minutes' drive south-east of Kirkcudbright, and Mary, Queen of Scots spent her last night in Scotland there in 1568. It opens every day from April to September and shuts for lunch from 12.30 to 1. With the drive there and back it takes the best part of an hour and a half, more than this day can spare, so keep it for another morning in Galloway.
Where to eat
Paul Jones Bakery, traditional town bakery.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Dumfries and Galloway.
Photographs by Adrian Lunsong and Kirkcudbright Galleries via Google