“Welcome to Dumfries and Galloway,” beams Mike Harris of Criffel Coaches as I arrive at Dumfries railway station. “I hope you’ll like it here. It’s a great region.” It’s a typically warm welcome to an oasis that I think is Scotland’s most underrated. I don’t need much encouraging to head back here; it’s just other people sometimes do. Join me now and I’ll show you through the eyes of this short trip why you should head for Dumfries and Galloway too.
UNESCO Biosphere
Riding the train down, Dumfries and Galloway is already putting on quite a show. Hulking hills rise up all around and then I catch sight of the sweep of the Solway Firth shimmering in the distance. The Southern Uplands Fault forges through the region and it’s left a dramatic legacy. If you like hills they’re here. Rugged coast? Yup. Thick forests? Yes, again. Galloway and Southern Ayrshire has been recognised, after all, as a protected UNESCO Biosphere.
Charming Dumfries
Dumfries is the biggest town, a charmer, she had to be to woo Robert Burns, who fled Ayrshire to set up first a farm and then the townhouse that is now a museum celebrating the seminal poet. It’s just part of the Robert Burns Trail, which I head straight from the station to follow. There is a hulking statue at the pedestrianised heart of Dumfries, the exhibits that shed light on his life at the Robert Burns Centre and his grand mausoleum. I say grand, but it wasn’t grand until William and Dorothy Wordsworth made a pilgrimage here, only to find it unbefitting of this massive romantic figure.
Superb Local Food
For me I get closest to Burns in the trail site that I think he’d appreciate most. I’m talking, of course, of his favourite howff, The Globe Inn. This characterful inn has been brilliantly done up. Yes, of course, they still have his etched verse on the windows and if you cannot recite Burns in his chair you still pay for everyone’s drinks. But it’s been brilliantly done up with two chefs who worked at Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles at the helm. It offers proper fine dining with ultra-local produce at its heart.
I find superb local produce at Dumfries’ Casa Mia too. Here the waitress talks me through how their salmon is both cured and smoked on site. The result is spectacular as is their beef fillet to follow. I dine well too at my hotel, the Cairndale Hotel & Leisure Club, I kick off with seafood and then sirloin steak. Smiles and genuine friendly service abounds, a constant I find in Dumfries and Galloway.
History and Whisky
I head east the next day in search of history and whisky. I find both. First, swathes of history at the superb Devil’s Porridge Museum. This award-winning gem recounts the story of the ‘Gretna Girls’ who single-handedly propelled Britain’s First World War efforts. Quite literally as the cordite they conjured up propelled both bullets and shells. I love that the museum tells their stories and puts it into the context in society of the time – it was a huge thing for so many women to be out in the workforce. It also delves into the tumultuous years of both world wars in Dumfries and Galloway.
There is history too at Annandale Distillery; talk of Robert Burns and Robert the Bruce, the ‘Two Rs’ as my informative guide Andrew Nicolson cask custodian explains. There is, of course, whisky too. Lots of it and a surprise to me – both peated and unpeated malts. Their tours really open up the resurrected distillery’s rich story, with tastings too. Swirl in a well-stocked shop and a café with input from the same chefs as The Globe Inn and it’s an intoxicating mix.
Scottish Riviera
It’s time now to push on through fields alive with sheep and those famed Belted Galloway cattle, in search of the River Dee and Kirkcudbright on the ‘Scottish Riviera’. The unique qualities of the local light have long attracted artists and dreamers. I’m in search of a man who can teach me to cook better. I find him at the Station House Cookery School. Nick Morris helps with my cookery skills and I make new friends of strangers who are cooking too. This brilliant fun ends with a celebratory feast at the end with the goodies we’ve cooked up.
I’ve just time to nip into the excellent deli Brambles next door – what a cheese collection! – before I heft across the road to the new Dark Art Distillery. They’ve already won awards for their gin and I find out why from distiller Fiona Williamson. She shows me the botanicals they harvest locally and explains what they bring to their crisp, fresh, aromatic wonder of a gin. They’ve a lovely tasting room too where you get to learn more about this popular drink than you’ll ever learn in a bar.
Galloway Hoard
I cannot leave Kirkcudbright without visiting Kirkcudbright Galleries. Not when they have the Galloway Hoard on show until at least July 2022. It would be a travesty if the Viking treasures were lost to Dumfries and Galloway after that as they were – after all – unearthed here. The hoard is nothing short of spectacular with both Viking and Anglo-Saxon pieces, both silver and gold. I always thought of the Vikings as lovers of silver. It’s real mind-bending stuff when I delve further and learn how the hoard has helped fuel the idea that the Vikings has established trading routes down the Russian rivers into Central Asia before they even set foot in Scotland.
On my last night I switch hotels to Trigony House Hotel & Garden Spa. I reviewed it a few years ago for the Telegraph and I’m back to do an update. With family-run independent hotels that always fills me with trepidation. Will it be as good? Have they managed to keep investing through troubled times? I’m instantly reassured as it looks spot on, they’ve still got a great team and have even added an outdoor wooden hot tub and a sauna. Dogs are as welcome as ever. Dinner is sublime – Solway Firth scallops followed by perfectly pink local venison loin.
Drumlanrig Castle Estate
I’ve time for one last adventure next door at the Duke of Buccleuch’s gaff. Drumlanrig Castle Estate. I’m pleased to see they have opened up the estate to mountain bikers. Local company Rik’s Bike Shed set me up with a proper MTB bike and then the lovely guide Liz from TrailSkills MTB spirits me off on the green, blue and red runs. Some trail centres I’ve been to are too manufactured; gouged out of the landscape with heavy trail machinery. Not here. Not in glorious Dumfries and Galloway. Nature is left largely to speak for herself as we ease under huge trees, bouncing over their roots and working with the contours rather than always trying to take them head on. Very Dumfries and Galloway.
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