Southwest Scotland 1st week August 2011

There was a strong desire to head north to less populated parts although there is the obstacle of Glasgow or across to Edinburg, but that is later.  The M6 was easy to get onto from Telford and we stopped a night at a motorway Days Inn at Lillington Lake near Kendal before reaching Gretna.  Follow the photos below for the journey north.

Gretna is not an old time village as expected. The older part of the current town dating back to a munitions factory during WW2.  Present day Gretna is new with a very good shopping centre.  It is based on a traditional village street concept but has the parking outside the buildings and the "street" is a pedestrian way as shown here.  While the centre was open there were glazed awnings over the shop frontages letting in good light. By late morning the number of people has increased considerably.

Westward from Gretna was mixed farmland with some woodland but relatively intensive farming.

The sheds in this view were for housing cattle.  Many pastures had been harvested for baleage.  On our way west we passed by Dumphries and Castle Douglas on the A75 highway then turned onto A713 beside Loch Ken.

Threave Gardens near Castle Douglas.  A new variant of Yarrow in the flower garden.

The vegetable garden got a somewhat better reception from this visitor.  She did however comment that the beetroot had been allowed to go to seed.

There was a play area for children the design of which should interest Richard Benson.  Just out of sight are also some Belted Galloway cattle that remained perfectly still all the time.

The grounds were well maintained although...

...there can always be a lapse.  Here gorse growing with a NZ Hebe.  Was it intentional!

Every garden has its mansion.  This was a National Trust property and part of the house is used for staff quarters.

Beware.  A companion sign says something like "oncoming vehicles in centre of road" but they were never together.

For a change we stayed at a Pub which also provided accomodation.  It was just like the Waiau Hotel in North Canterbury but this one was at St John's Town of Dalry near the north end of Loch Ken.

That evening a walking path through farmland was navigated meeting a few of the locals.  Kath alos met up with an old gentleman who told her about a woman of the village who bought up houses that were for sale to prevent them being snatched up for holiday homes.  She would then rent them out to retiring farm workers of the area.

While the cows were very placid these ladies were less than happy with any intrusion even although we were separated by a stone wall fence.  There was a bit of foot stamping.

Next day on the way to "The Rinns of Galloway", at the end of Solway Firth (look west to the sea from Gretna, town Stranaer) we met these two alert types.

We had been told the seaside village of Portpatrick was worth a vist, further west from Stranaer.

Portpatrick as a small sea port had a strong lifeboat group and here in the main street, with the flag on a building, fund raising was in progress.

Tourists everywhere!  Even on the rocky shore.

A long pier at a small place called Fairlie where coal was being imported from South America to fuel power stations.  It was near Largs in the Firth of Clyde where we stayed the night.