After a slight scare with petrol, or rather lack of, we found ourselves back in Portpatrick following a side trip to Stranraer, to regroup and plan for the afternoon. A quick check of the various options found us on our way to Gatehouse of Fleet, a small town in central Dumfries & Galloway, to see the old cotton mill.

I finally lost patience with the car after struggling up a steep hill, barely able to maintain 50mph and tried changing the settings on the gearbox, a voila! The car actually shifted itself. Only a small improvement, but at least I can accelerate a little better. From now on the car is staying in sports mode!

The road to the Gatehouse of Fleet (such a cool name for a town) is actually off the motorway and I missed the turnoff, but we were able to head down the next one and double back, phew. The Mill was easy to find as Gatehouse seems to only have one street, well ok, half a dozen streets.

Just across from the cotton mill is a large waterwheel from a demolished mill that used to be next door. It still turns and it’s awesome to see how the wheel worked. The wheel on the mill itself wasn’t turning, so this was a good consolation.

Inside I was a little disappointed as there is very little to do with the mill itself, more a disparate collection of stuff relating to the town and a little bit of science. The dioramas of the town were interesting though.

We stopped for a coffee and hot chocolate in the cafe and avoided buying any of the twee souvenirs before a quick stroll down the main road. The town itself is nice to look at with, with a number of very old buildings still standing.

It was getting late though, and we had quite a journey to get back to Portpatrick, so it wasn’t long before we were back in the car and on the road.

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