A Grand Week in Galloway

My morning walk followed this Green Lane and its the best place I have ever seen for brambles with both sides of the lane for half a mile just full of Bramble bushes.

This is Ailsa Craig just out of Loch Ryan. Gaye used to sail out there in a 15ft yacht over 50 years ago. 

This is a young Turnstone taken at Isle of Whithorn

The entrance to Portpatrick Harbour on Wednesday. We had a lovely lunch at The Crown just sitting outside in the sunshine. 

The people on this yacht were at the next table to us for lunch. They had just come over from Ireland for a day out and a nice lunch.

The Confidante is based in Lerwick and is a Survey vessel in Stranraer harbour at the moment. 

The large Portpatrick Hotel which went bust a year ago and rumour has it that it has been sold again, but it's been empty all summer. It mostly catered for bus tour parties and these have been badly missed in Portpatrick. The town is still busy, mostly with visitors from Ireland and unlike many of the small towns in Wigtownshire it is looking good whereas some of the others are really beginning to look in need of care and attention. 

Our Irish visitors heading back home after lunch at The Crown.

Isle of Whithorn which is a lovely village but showing signs of needing some money spent on the properties there. 

On our way back from Isle of Whithorn to Port William we came upon this old church in the middle of a field. It is called Cruggleton Church and was build in the 12th century by Fergus, Lord of Galloway and restored in 1890 for the 3rd Marquess of Bute. There is an ecumenical service held there every September. 

The view from the bedroom window of our holiday cottage

Portpatrick Harbour

Gaye lived in this house in Wigtown for the first 12 years of her life. It is still much the same as it was then. Her next door neighbour was the actor James Robertson Justice. We enjoyed our week in Port William and look forward to staying for another week in Wigtown next May

 

 

A Visit to Portpatrick

We left Langholm last Thursday for a couple of nights in Portpatrick as we love this part of the world and it gives us a chance each year to visit Wigtown where Gaye was brought up until she was about 12 years old. This is the Town Hall and Bowling Green in the Market Square in Wigtown and it must be one of the most impressive town centres in Scotland. The town is now Scotland's Book Town and is becoming more prosperous but it still needs more jobs to be created and in parts of the town a good facelift. As we drove further west the weather got better and better until by the time we arrived in Portpatrick it was a glorious evening.

The harbour in Wigtown and I have never seen a boat in it so don't know if it is used much these days.

Just next to the harbour at the mouth of the Bladnoch river there is a nature reserve with a superb bird hide.

This is the Bird Hide built by the local community in Wigtown 

While we were at the harbour we met this couple from Haltwhistle who often visit Newcastleton as they have relatives live there. We spent a very pleasant hour chatting to them and left as if we had known them for years. They are called Fiona and Robert Burn.

On arrival at the Rickwood Hotel we went down into Portpatrick for a meal and then came back to spend a very pleasant 30 minutes in the Hot Tub

On Friday we headed to the north of the Rhins and had a lovely walk along the shore of Loch Ryan at Kirkcolm. We then had lunch in the Corsewall Lighthouse Hotel at the northern tip of the Rhins of Galloway. From the Lighthouse you had a superb view of the ferries leaving and coming into Loch Ryan. The lunch was excellent and the surroundings just perfect. 

The Lighthouse Hotel at Corsewall. We can recommend it to anybody who wishes an unusual venue for a wedding or just to stay for a night. 

After lunch we headed down to the southern end of the Rhins and to Drummore where we spotted this Heron fishing at low tide. It caught a couple of fish while we sat watching it but I just was not able to take a photograph at the exact time it caught them.

The beach at Port Logan

On Saturday I went on a long pre breakfast walk to Dunskey Castle. It was a dry morning but a bitterly cold wind and by the time I got back to the hotel for breakfast I was ready for my excellent porridge and the fry up which we only have these days when we are on holiday.

Portpatrick from the southern end of the town.