Our original plan for today was to do a series of geocaches along the Queen’s Way in the Galloway Forest Park, but the flaky internet connection at the Old Schoolhouse meant we never got the chance to really download any of the caches to the GPS.  We decided we’d take the route anyway and enjoy the scenery.

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.

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After calling back in to the School House for lunch we jumped back in the car for a drive out to New Abbey, a town south of Dumfries where I had seen there was a corn mill. Our ancestors have some connection to mills so I thought it might be interesting, not to mention the fact that I love water-powered mills.

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.

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We set off this morning with the intention of doing some geocaching while exploring the local area. There were a few geocaches nearby,  so we loaded up the GPS and set off in the car for the nearest one. We found the first with relative ease, but unfortunately workmen at the site made it impossible to look around, so we decided to forget that and try another.

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.

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This morning was Barb’s & Linz’s last  morning at the Old School House in Steilston, and after waving them off this just after 10am, we decided to seek out some of the local attractions.

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!

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After a lazy start to the day, we decided the weather was too good to waste, so the four of us jumped in the car and headed for the seaside. The original plan was to go to Annan and have a leisurely look around, but after following the signs to the Solway Tourist Drive, we eneded  up taking a tour of the Nith Estuary.

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.

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