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.

The majority of the drive down was uneventful until the standard road gave way to a single track road. I’m quite used to driving on them now, but it’s still stressful, especially when your car has a massive blind-spot thanks to great big, thick A-Pillars!  We didn’t meet much traffic but the road was rough in places and toward the end, very close to the cliffs. So, it was a relief when we finally reached the car park.

First up we had to grab our rain jackets as the skies were threatening on one side, and bright and blue on the other. The wind was blowing a gale! We started off on the path to the visitors centre at the end of the promontory to find out more about the area. We found ourselves in a long coversation with a volunteer at the centre about travelling, and being off the beaten track as well as learning about the local birds and geological features.

Back out on the promontory we had great views of Scotland (across  the way) and England (the Lake District) and a small outline of Northern Ireland, but we coouldn’t see the Isle of Mann, which apparently makes and appearance on clear days. We wandered around the cliffs, taking photos, even having a look at the old Foghorn. I wasn’t game to head down the steep steps though, so we settled on pictures from a distance!

As well as the visitor’s centre, there is a large Stevenson lighthouse, with a museum next door. That was our next stop. It is only a small museum, but it includes a few videos as well as the engines for the foghorn. It used to take three men to sound the horn via three engines! Now the lighthouse is controlled remotely from Edinburgh.

By now we were a little peckish, so we headed to the final of the three atttractions at the Mull of Galloway, the cafe. The cafe is set into the side of the cliffs, and with one wall entirely made up of glass, it offers views across the sea to Ireland while you eat.

The cliffs behind and below the cafe are amazing – so rugged and steep! Before leaving we decided to have a bit more of a wander down to the more rugged of the cliffs, in the cow fields. Pausing for photos, I got a bit more of a shock than I bargained for when the wind knocked me slightly, but enough to touch the cattle fencing, which was electric! Ouchies.

The trip to the Mull of Galloway really was as good as everyone promised it would be, the only way it could be better was if the weather was clearer, as it was we still had the half sunny, half cloudy effect as we left. With our minds and cameras full of the views we headed back down the single track road (with a lot more oncoming traffic) and up to Portpatrick to regroup for the afternoon.

We found the hotel with relative ease thanks to the GPS and found ourselves with a front, sea-facing room that had views over the town and to the sea. Our host informed us that on a good day we’d be able to see Ireland, but this evening’s cloud made that impossible.

With everything checked in and settled, we made our way down to the harbour in search of food. After checking all the advertised menus on the harbour-front restaurants, we opted for The Waterfront Hotel’s restaurant. The meal was great, a vegetarian lasagne and salad followed by apple pie and ice cream. As we ate and the skies became darker, the lights from Larne in Northern Ireland became visible across the sea.

The walk home was pleasant, the midges staying away along with the rain. Time for some rest now.

On the drive in we’d noticed signs pointing to Saint Ninian’s Chapel and Cave. We didn’t fancy the cave, but the chapel looked like it might be interesting, and we wanted to make the most of our Historic Scotland membership while we’re here so we jumped back in the car and followed the road further into town to find the chapel.

We found the chapel at the end of harbour but we couldn’t find anyway too get to it, so we settled for viewing it from the surrounding fields. The view out across the bay was worthwhile so we climbed a nearby hill to a lookout which turned out to be a memorial to a group of sailors who drowned off the coast.

The day’s earlier bad weather was looking like making a return, so we returned to the car to continue the journey the Portpatrick.

Apart from a grocery store, a post office and the odd pub, every shop in Wigtown is  a book shop! It’s unbelievable. The Wigtown Fesitval is also happening at the moment, so the park in the centre of the High Street has been converted to a sea of marquees, with coachload after coachload of pensioners visiting.

We chose to bypass the festival and head for the harbour. Wigtown is made up of a mixture of old and new housing, with some of the older homes having excellent views over Wigtown Bay. We finally reached the harbour and were surprised to find it looked more like something built in the iron age than a functioning harbour. There wasn’t a boat in sight, and the tide was out so there wasn’t much water either! It turns out the harbour was built recently by a group of people on the Scottish equivalent of the Work for the Dole scheme.

From the harbour there is a trail to the nature reserve, where thousands of birds can be found (apparently). Recent rains made the way muddy, but we continued on. We didn’t see many birds, other than some Herring Gulls, but we did see the most odd, bright orange slug which appeared to have been deposited on  the path by an earlier high tide. I’ve never seen anything like it before!

With nothing of interest at the harbour, we turned around and made our way back to the town centre. There wasn’t much happening there either, so we popped into the Co-Op and bought some sandwiches before hitting the road again to find somewhere for lunch.

Wigtown was nice, but nothing special.

The day started out beautiful and clear as the GPS sent us off on a winding, meandering journey through farmland and single track roads. The hire car, a Mercedes A-Class, is proving itself to be absolutely useless outside of the city! I spent most of the drive with one wheel off the track to stop the car bottoming-out constantly! The Astra we had last time was much better suited to the type of driving we’re doing, but we’re stuck with the Merc now.

We finally got out of the farmland and back onto the motorway when the heavens opened. The Queen’s Way was going to be a wet day out. We arrived at the first stop on the way at around 10am, kitted up in our wet weather gear and set off to find an iron-age hut and Bruce’s Stone. The walk through the forest was pleasant, and not too wet, although some of the mud was a little slippery.

We took some photos and headed back towards the visitor’s centre and cafe, where we warmed up with some hot drinks and cakes before a quick look around the wildlife display made up of taxidermically-treated roadkill – it wasn’t as bad as it sounds!

The next stop on the way was  the Red Deer Park, where it was still raining. We jumped out again and trekked off up the hill to spot us some deer. We were a little disappointed as only one deer decided to show itself, and that one was hiding behind a fence. We decided there wasn’t much to see so went back to the car to carry on to the next stop – the Wild Goats.

Here we weren’t disappointed. The hills were covered with goats. We found somewhere to park where the goats were just metres away from us. We took several photos and spent some time watching them go about their business before seeking refuge from the rain in the car.

We could see the monument at the Grey Mare’s Tail but decided to bypass it due to the weather. We carried on further and decided to stop at the Glen of the Bar, which is a great big, steep-sided valley with burn and tree covered slopes. The view from the overhanging wooden viewing platform was amazing, especially with the mist hanging in the trees.

With that we’d finished our tour of the Queen’s Way and found ourselves back on the motorway, heading for Portpatrick. More to come on how the rest of the day panned out soon.

Before we left I had found out that you could download a custom points of interest file for the GPS from Historic Scotland. I grabbed a copy and loaded it onto the Garmin, and as the Corn Mill is run by Historic Scotland, we could program it in as a destination. The system worked perfectly and we found our way without incident.

The mill itself was great, the only downside being that the wheel wasn’t turning while we were there. We received a guided tour followed by time to explore the mill at our own pace. The place smelt so old!

When we’d finished at the mill, we noticed that just around the corner was an old abbey. As we’d just joined Historic Scotland, we get free entry to a number of places around the country, Sweetheart Abbey being one of them, we decided to have a look.

Sweetheart Abbey is was an old Cistercian Abbey dating back to the 13th century. I don’t usually like religious buildings, but this one was ruined enough to just admire the architecture and building methods of the time. In more recent times the abbey has been used as a memorial for local fallen soldiers and men of note. We spent quite a long time wandering amongst the ruins and through the neighbouring churchyard reading the old inscriptions.

By now it was getting late, so it was back in the car again to head back to the Old School House via Tesco for some supplies.

So, on we went, onto single track lanes through the Dumfries & Galloway farmland, up into the hills. After missing the parking point, thanks to more workmen, we did another circuit and eventually parked in farmer’s field before setting off up the “hill”.

We walked up, zig-zagging along the slopes, passing sheep and cows and climbing closer to the clouds. At a couple of points I was prepared to give up as the slopes got steeper and steeper, but a short rest and we continued on, and I have to say I’m glad I did. Once at the top it felt like we were standing on the highest point in Dumfries & Galloway, although in reality it isn’t. Still, my iPhone worked out that we had climbed around 200m from the carpark.

The wind was blowing a gale, and every so often the clouds would drench us, but we could see forever. There were rainbows and wind farms, sheep, cows, a river and Dumfries itself beyond the miles of farmland.

The only disappointment was discovering that the geocache had been removed, so we’d climbed all that way for nothing! We decided luck obviously wasn’t on our side when it came to caching, so we took our photos and videos and started to head back  down, along the cow trails (scary!) to the car to find something else to do for the afternoon.

Just a few miles from the School House, there is a reservoir with a number of sculptures scattered about the surrounding fields, the whole circuit is several miles, but we thought it would be nice to drive up there and have a look around, even if we didn’t see all the sculptures.

The drive up was interesting, mainly on single track roads. We didn’t meet much traffic but we did encounter several Grouse, a Kite and Red Squirrel! We eventually wound our way through to the reservoir and parked at the first statue. That’s pretty much as far as we got, too!

The reservoir itself was covered in swans, and we were joined by a rather boisterous but entertaining trio of Labradors! We took a photos, had a wander and decided with the light fading, we should head back home and try to get the temperamental internet working.  No such luck though, I have to wait thirty minutes to get the two minute window to post this entry on the blog!

The drive was scenic and enjoyable, and after a dead-end at Mabie Forest we found ourselves on the road to Castle Douglas – Scotland’s food town. We parked at the library and set off down the High street to discover what being a food town actually meant.

Our first stop was for ice cream (thanks Linz!) where we sampled the local fare, I think amongst us there was White Chocolate Crunch, Marscapone and Pistachio (not sure about the last one though). The ice cream was lovely!

I don’t know about the others, but I was quite disappointed with Castle Douglas. It was a lot more urban and modern than I expected, and evidence of the food town status was few and far between, unless you count the four butchers, which for obvious reasons, were of no interest to me.

So with ice cream consumed, we headed back to the car and said goodbye to Castle Douglas.