Day Two, Laneshaw Bridge, Lancs. to Garlieston, Dumfries & Galloway. 199 miles.
After a full English at the Alma Inn I checked out, attempted to remove as much sap as possible from the car, and cleaned the dead things off the windscreen. Heading north in the sunshine on local roads through Pendle to pick up the A65 was a breathtakingly scenic drive and I think this area might need to be visited again. What followed once I reached the A65 wasn't so good though. Heavy and stop/start traffic all the way through Ingleton (been there) and Kirby Lonsdale all the way to the M6 motorway junction 36. It turned out that this was because we were following a huge quarry dump truck on a low-loader, escorted by multiple Police cars, and the only place for them to pull in was a layby just before the motorway. Bad timing really. Once I got on the M6 heading north I could finally do more than 20 mph. For the next couple of hours I cruised northwards on the motorway, stopping for a comfort break once I'd crossed the border and then taking the A75 to Dumfries before heading on the A710 towards the Solway Firth coast.
I'd put a couple of waymarks into the sat-nav to make it take this less direct route the first of which was a car park at New Abbey with a convenient public convenience. Which turned out to be beside the ruins of the Abbey of Dulce Cor, better known as Sweetheart Abbey. I guess the clue was in the name of the village but I hadn't expected it. I was a nice break from driving to walk around the outside of the ruins (currently behind a fence because bits keep falling off) and the graveyard.
Leaving New Abbey I continued along the coast road, unfortunately for some way behind a large Dutch motorhome who felt the need to straddle the centre line of the two-way road and come to a halt every time something came the other way, before I eventually escaped and some way further on turned off to visit Rockcliffe, a wee village with a car park, a loo, a beach, and importantly an ice cream van. It would have been rude not to get a 99 and very good it was too.
I returned to the main coast road and followed it west, passing through Dalbeattie, Auchencairn, and Kirkudbright to reach Newton Stewart where I turned south past Wigtown to the harbour village of Garlieston. Although I've previously driven through this part of Scotland I'd not had the time to stop so I'd booked two nights at The Harbour Inn, Garlieston. That turned out to be an excellent decision. The Harbour Inn sits exactly where you'd expect, right on the waterfront and my larger than expected room looked straight out to sea across the harbour.
I thoroughly enjoyed my stay here. Excellent food, good beer, a proper bar with a friendly atmosphere and the staff were lovely. No data gathering nonsense on the free Wi-Fi either. I could easily have lingered longer had I known what a nice place it was but I had a cottage in Kintyre to get to. After dinner I took a walk along the shore path to Rigg Bay and on the way back saw a hare in the field in front of Galloway House. I don't recall that last time I saw a hare.
There are limited facilities at Garlieston. There's The Harbour Inn, a cafe, a Public Convenience, a large touring caravan site (which ensures that booking a table at the inn is almost essential) and a garage with a small shop on the edge of the village. This has one pump on the forecourt, dispensing only diesel fuel. Best be prepared if heading here, although the larger settlement of Wigtown is not far away.
Day 3, In and around Garlieston
The next morning after a superb full Scottish breakfast eaten overlooking a sun drenched harbour I decided I should probably try to work some of that off so headed out for a walk around Garlieston Bay and Eggerness Point. During the Second World War Garlieston became part of the secret Mulberry Harbour project in preparation for D-Day. The profile of the beach and sea bed here was similar to that of the proposed harbour sites in Normandy and that coupled with the remote nature of the locality, led to Garlieston and the surrounding area being selected as the development region for the artificial harbours. There are parts of the prototype Mulberry harbours still in the bay and I wanted to take a look at them on my walk. The path around Eggerness Point mostly runs through the woods so finding the harbour remains required popping out of the woods onto the rocky beach a couple of times to locate the right spot.
I carried on around the coast through the woods to Innerwell. This Shore Wood Belt contained a fine show of Bluebells and some secluded little beaches just off the path. It also had a lot of blown down trees across the path to negotiate. I'm sure someone will get back up there with a chainsaw and complete the clearing of them that they've started. I didn't fancy clambering back over them though so returned to Garlieston via the roads. I chilled out until dinner time, had a very tasty seafood tagliatelle followed by a couple of beers, then retired to sleep like the proverbial log.
Next morning I rose, breakfasted as per the previous day, and took my leave of Garlieston. I'd definitely like to return.
In part 3 I take a long drive to Kintyre.
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