On Thursday the 10th May 2018 we headed to Gatehouse of Fleet to spend a few days with the youngest two, we took them out of school for an extra day and a half to explore and learn about some of the histrical locations Dumfries and Galloway has to offer. We usually do not take children out of school but felt that the children would gain from the experience. The Cosy Retreat which is aptly named is a fantistic located property in Gatehoue of Fleet, This was found airbnb.com and was a lovely place to stay and enjoy or as a base for exploration. Immaculate and comfortable with lots of lovely little extras it is a must stay. To make the most of the Thursday and not feel like we had nothing but travel we headed to Orchardton Tower, this is a free site with a donation box, This unique and unusual roundhouse is the only one of its style in Scotland, This fortified residence of a nobleman. Orchardton Towers is located approx 6 miles South East from Castle Douglas on the A77, there is a small area for a few cars to park. We were the only ones to visit at this time. We enjoyed looking around the tower, We were lucky that the weather gods favoured our evening. This is worth a quick stop if you are in the area. We are sure we will return in the future to this historical site. Friday morning we were all up relatively early and were not too late getting ourselves out the door. We headed firstly to Sorbie Tower, Located about a mile east from the town of Sorbie. This is a lovely little site to visit, The tower has scaffolding supporting it and there seems to be some conservation work being carried out. You can look around the tower but are not permitted to go inside, this should not stop you visiting as the tower is an impressive building and the surrounding plants and wildlife are not to be mssed. After leaving Sorbie tower we headed to Whithorn to visit Whithorn Priory and replica Roundhouse. We enjoyed a visit to the cafe before starting our exploration in the ehibition which has lots of interesting information from the site and priory. The exhibtion is laid out well and is suited to all ages. There is a short video presentation which is interesting, if it does not start when you enter the room a member of staff is more than happy to help you. The replica roundhouse is situated just around the corner from the exhibition also the historic scotland exhibition is in the same location, the exhibition holds a wide range of stone crosses removed and placed there to keep them from further disintigration. The Roundhouse tours are at set times and a guide will take you into the site of the arcehlogical dig before taking you into the roundhouse, the sites has many interesting features and the history in the small meadow is truly fasciniating. You are then welcome to wander around the grounds of the priory after your tour finishes. This is a great place to visit, highly recommended We then travelled and stopped by Barsalloch Hill Fort, the step stairs to the top of the hill is well worth the view alone, then onto St Finians Chaple, we then drove until we reached Casrsluith Castle which has a wonderful smoke house and cafe on site. Buying a range of smoked products was a must. These are free sites to visit and worth a look around. We headed back to our cosy retreat for the remainder of the day excited about what the next day would bring. To start our day we headed to Dundrennan Abbey, This site is maintained by Historic Scotland, We arrived just as it opened the shutters were still being taken off the ticket booth. The man who was working the site that day was named Glyn, He welcomed us to the site asked the children a few questions and was enthusiastic about the history and promised the children to a story about Mary Queen of Scots at the end of our visit. We were the only ones visiting at that point and at the end of wandering around, we returned to hear what story Glyn was going to tell us, The way Glyn spoke to children was enagaging and pitched right at their ages. We felt that Glyn went above and beyond to make our visit special. Credit goes to Glyn and Historic Scotland. Admission Member/Explorer Pass holder: FREE Adult: £5.00 Child aged 5–15: £3.00 Child under 5: FREE Concession: £4.00 Open 1 April to 30 September: Daily, 9.30am to 5.30pm Last entry 5pm Closed 1 October to 31 March If you are in the area stop in and enjoy this very unique and special site. We left Dundrennan Abbey with a feeling that if we did nothing more on this holiday it would have been worth while. We headed to Caerlaverock Castle again maintained by Historic Scotland. This is a beautiful castle, we firstly headed to the 8 min video narrated by Tony Robinson it is highly informative in a very entertaining way, with dress up for both adult and kids, drawing shields is a nice way to keep the whole family entertained. Then we strolled down to the castle, the castle is home to many birds and has a truly unique feel, with a beautiful moat all around everyone will enjoy learning about the origins of the castles history. The gift hope and cafe are nice and we enjoyed a nice cup of tea and scone. We all enjoyed our visit to Caerlaverock Castle. Admission Member/Explorer Pass holder: FREE Adult: £6.00 Child aged 5–15: £3.60 Child under 5: FREE Concession: £4.80 Open 1 April to 30 September: Daily, 9.30am to 5.30pm Last entry 5pm 1 October to 31 March: Daily, 10am to 4pm Last entry 3.30pm Café opening hours The café is situated within the visitor centre. April to September: Daily, 10am to 4.30pm October: Daily, 10am to 3.30pm November to March: Closed Tues and Thurs, 10am to 3.30pm Closed25 and 26 December 1 and 2 January We hit the road again, we headed to New Abbey to visit Sweetheart Abbey and New Abbey Corn Mill. Both these sites are maintained by Historic Scotland. Sweetheart Abbey is currently undergoing some major bulding conservation, which means there is significant areas covered with scaffolding, however it is good to see what the memberships and sdmissions resources are spent on. The New Abbey Corn Mill was up and running and we got to see the waterwheel turn and the mill making flour, this is a great site working or not, full of fun information on the estates Mill and how it worked in history. This was a great way to spend the afternoon everyone really enjoyed the Corn Mill.
We then decided to finishe our day before heading back to the Cosy Retreat, We stopped at Cairn Holy a free site maintained by Historic Scotland. Going to do a seperate blog for Cairn Holy as it was a very unique and wonderful experience.
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Alistair and Ffyona's TravelsOur adventure blog, little bit of history, our recommendations and a few photos... Archives
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