www.ayrshire-arran.com

Tourist board site for Ayshire

 www.dumfriesngalloway.com

Area tourist board site for Dumfries and Galloway

www.visitlanarkshire.com

Fun and informative site about Lanarkshire

Ayrshire, to the south of Glasgow, is the land of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, and here are places which recall not only his poetry, but also his life. In Alloway, just south of Ayr, is his birthplace, a modest cottage, with a museum alongside it. Not far away is Alloway Kirk, in the graveyard of which Burns’ poem ‘Tam O’ Shanter’ is set. But Ayrshire is much more than Burns’ Country – suss out the beaches near Ayr and the town itself. To the south is Culzean Castle (NTS) and its walled garden and large wooded estate, while to the west is Dumfries House, recently opened to the public and said to be one of the most magnificent Georgian houses in Britain.

The Clyde Valley is one of the most fertile spots in Scotland, well known for the growing of soft fruit – and for New Lanark, a World Heritage Site, on the River Clyde. New Lanark is an 18th-century cotton-mill village, where Robert Owen developed a socially responsible village. Still very much a living community, this is a fascinating place.

Dumfries and Galloway is just over the border from England; turn left at Gretna Green and you are in an area which has beautiful fertile farms, curving bays with sandy beaches, gardens with exotic plants and miles and miles of forests, lochs and moorland to explore. The main town is Dumfries (more Robert Burns’ connections and a camera obscura), but to the west are several other towns and villages worth visiting – Kirkcudbright, Castle Douglas, Creetown, Newton Stewart and Wigtown, Scotland’s Book Town.

There is plenty to tempt you off the beaten track. The road south from Dumfries goes through New Abbey, with the graceful ruin of Sweetheart Abbey, a working corn-mill nearby, and the Shambellie House Museum of Costume. The road runs the west, along the Solway Firth, with its beaches and bays, to Kirkcudbright, an attractive little town, then on to Gatehouse of Fleet, where the whole family can have fun at Cream o’ Galloway – a working farm which makes a range of tasty ice-creams.
Further on is Creetown and the Creetown Gem Rock Museum, which is a must-visit!

The keen gardener will want to visit Threave Gardens (NTS) near Castle Douglas and, not far from Stranraer, are Castle Kennedy Gardens, Logan Botanic Garden and Dunskey Gardens. If you think that palm trees don’t grown in Scotland, come here to discover why they do!

Visitors interested in heritage will find plenty to attract them – Threave Castle (where a small boat takes you across to an island) the Whithorn Centre (where Christianity first arrived in Scotland), Glenluce Abbey, and Drundrennan Abbey, where, it is said, Mary, Queen of Scots spent her very last night in her kingdom.

Dumfries and Galloway is also great for walkers and everyone who likes to be out in the countryside; Glentrool Forest Park has almost 19,000 acres of open country.
 

View the Thistle Holiday Parks in Ayrshire, Clyde Valley,  Dumfries & Galloway