Dumfries & Galloway

2502 | 24 to 30 April | 7 days | maximum number 12

Dawyck Botanic Garden, Dumfries House, Threave House & Gardens, Logan Botanic Garden, Castle Kennedy, Glenwhan, Drumlanrig Castle, Broughton House, Wigtown Book Town, Kirkcudbright & more…

Scotland in miniature…

Welcome to Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland in miniature. Rich cultural heritage, stunning scenery, sweeping seascapes, towering cliffs, rolling agricultural land, and wide, wild landscapes – Scotland’s southwestern corner is a hidden gem, too often overlooked by those hurrying north to the Highlands.

This tour takes you to some of Scotland’s finest gardens, two of the three Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s satellite gardens, two of Scotland’s outstanding private gardens and Dumfries House, one of Britain’s finest houses. Its situation, warmed by the mild currents of the Gulf Stream, provides for a most benign climate and one especially suited to spring gardens. Indeed, in purely horticultural terms, southwest Scotland outclasses much of the rest of Scotland – if only people would stop on their way north!

Dumfries & Galloway has personal connections too. Tim’s great-great-grandfather was the miller at Carsluith, near Wigtown, it’s where Tim’s mother was evacuated to during WW2, and it’s where Tim holidayed as a child – he knows it well and enjoys showing it off.

Needless to say, we eat well and stay in two very comfortable establishments.

Main image: Kirkcudbright © VisitScotland / Kenny Lam

Prices

Per person, sharing

2,400 GBP | 3,360 USD | 2,640 EUR | 28.800 SEK

Prices, per person, sharing a double or twin room

Per person, single occupancy

2,700 GBP | 3,780 USD | 2,970 EUR | 32.400 SEK

Prices, per person, for the single occupancy of a double room

Prices, reservations & payments

Please read the Booking & Paying page and the comments in the additional tour information, below the tour itinerary.

BOOK

BOOK PLACES ON THIS TOUR

INTERESTED?

EXPRESS INTEREST & HOLD PLACES ON THIS TOUR

QUESTION?

ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS TOUR

Itinerary

Scroll down to see Additional Tour Information – tour area map, hotels and dining etc

D1 Thursday, 24 April

Dawyck Botanic

Tim will collect you from the Hampton by Hilton Hotel, Edinburgh Airport, and once we are all together we’ll set off on a scenic drive through the Borders’ countryside to Dawyck Botanic Garden.

One of three satellite gardens of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), Dawyck is renowned for its spring displays of bluebells, rhododendrons and azaleas. Lying deep in the hills of the Scottish Borders, its 65 acres enjoy an almost continental climate, perfect conditions for plants to thrive from the mountainous regions of Europe, China, Nepal, Japan and North America.

The garden boasts one of Scotland’s finest tree collections including some of Britain’s oldest and tallest trees. It also boasts an impressive cafe, where we’ll enjoy some lunch before continuing our journey to Kirkcudbright, where we’ll arrive at The Selkirk Arms, our home for the next four nights, in good time to settle in before dinner at the hotel.

Today’s driving is approx. 110 miles/175 km

D2 Friday, 25 April

Logan Botanic Garden © Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Logan Botanic & Glenwhan

We start the day at Logan Botanic Garden, another RBGE satellite garden, famous for its collection of plants rarely seen elsewhere in the UK.

Perched on the southwestern tip of Scotland, and warmed by the Gulf Stream, Logan enjoys an almost subtropical climate, and its collections of plants from Australia, New Zealand, South and Central America and Southern Africa thrive here – this is the antithesis of its sister garden, Dawyck.

After lunch, at Logan, we’ll have the afternoon at nearby Glenwhan, Bill & Tessa Knott’s life’s work, purchased by telephone – sight unseen – in 1971! They wanted somewhere to farm and raise their young family and bought 103 acres, mainly of bog and moorland. Today, Glenwhan is justly described as one of the most beautiful gardens in Scotland with unique & stunning views across Luce Bay to the Mull of Galloway and to the Isle of Man beyond. Read Tessa’s full account here.

We’ll have dinner at The Clachan Inn, en route home to Kirkcudbright.

Today’s driving is approx. 115 miles/185 km

Kirkcudbright

Established as a Royal Burgh in 1455, Kirkcudbright (pronounced kir–coo–bree) has long been a busy fishing port, though behind the harbour its streets have housed generations of creative artists, a tradition maintained today by a flourishing colony of painters and craftworkers – hence it is known as ‘The Artists’ Town’.

D3 Saturday, 26 April

Cally Gardens & Kirkcudbright

Our day starts at nearby Cally Gardens, a working nursery, specialising in unusual perennials. Dating to the 1760s, the walled garden was bought by Michael Wickenden in 1987, after a 10-year search for somewhere to develop his specialist nursery. After Michael’s death, the gardens were reopened in 2018 and, today, house over 5000 rare plants.

Returning to Kirkcudbright, for lunch and a private walking tour of the town, given by Kirkcudbright Art Tours, we’ll spend the rest of the day exploring the town and visiting Broughton House, the one-time home and studio of E A Hornel, one of the early 20th-century ‘Glasgow Boys’, who bought Broughton House in 1901. Standing in the heart of Kirkcudbright, Broughton House is now a museum, dedicated to Hornel, his life and his work.

There will be some free time during the afternoon, time enough to explore some of the many independent shops and galleries, before we meet for drinks and dinner at our hotel.

Today’s driving is approx. 30 miles/50 km

D4 Sunday, 27 April

Castle Kennedy & Wigtown

We return to the west, starting our day at the splendid Castle Kennedy. Home to the Earls of Stair, Castle Kennedy dates to at least the 14th century though, unfortunately, the original castle and virtually all its contents were destroyed by fire in 1716. Not that this seemed to deter the 2nd Earl (1673-1747) who began laying out gardens around the ruins almost immediately, completely reshaping the landscape on a grand scale.

The gardens were again restored, replanted and extended in the mid-19th century and form the 30 hectares/75 acres of garden we see today. Read a fuller history here.

We’ll have lunch at Castle Kennedy before driving to nearby Wigtown – Scotland’s Book Town – for a decent exploration of the town and its many secondhand booksellers. Continuing south, we will stop for a brief visit to Galloway House Gardens, historic gardens dating to 1740 on Wigtown Bay, but now maintained on a voluntary basis.

If time allows, we may continue south, to the Isle of Whithorn, to visit St Ninian’s Chapel, but in any case, we will have dinner along the coast, en route home to Kirkcudbright.

Today’s driving is approx. 140 miles/224 km

D5 Monday, 28 April

Threave House & Corsock House

We leave Kirkcudbright to visit Threave House and its famous gardens. Built for William Gordon in 1872, this Scottish Baronial mansion is made from the distinct local red sandstone and was the Gordon family home. Gifted to the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) in 1957, it soon became the NTS School of Heritage Gardening, training a new generation of NTS gardeners. Needless to say, the gardens at Threave are a delight and particularly well-maintained!

After lunch, at Threave, we continue our journey north to Corsock House. Home to the Ingall family, Corsock House is a private garden, opening for charity under the umbrella of Scotland’s Gardens. The garden includes an amazing variety of designed landscapes, from a strictly formal walled garden, through richly planted woodlands full of different vistas, artfully designed water features and surprises to extensive lawns showing off the Bryce baronial mansion. This is an Arcadian garden with pools and temples, described by Ken Cox as ‘perhaps my favourite of Scotland’s many woodland gardens’.

It’s a nice drive from Corsock House to Trigony House Hotel, our home for the next two nights, where we will arrive in good time to settle in before dinner.

Today’s driving is approx. 50 miles/80 km

The Selkirk Arms Hotel and Robert Burns

Burns stayed at the Selkirk Arms Hotel many times including, in 1794, when he was staying prior to a supper hosted by the Earl of Selkirk on St Mary's Isle. Burns is thought to have written the Selkirk Grace in the hotel lounge prior to the supper, and gifted it to the Earl. Burns Ballads on Mr Heron's Election 1795 also begins “Fly, let us a' to Kircudbright, for there will be bickerin' there, for Murray's light horse are to muster…”. Broughton House, the home of E A Hornel has one of the largest collections of works by Robert Burns.

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some would eat that want it,
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the lord be thankit.

The Selkirk Grace

D6 Tuesday, 29 April

D7 Wednesday, 30 April

Crawick Multiverse & Drumlanrig Castle

We begin the day at Crawick Multiverse, an amazing land art installation created by Charles Jencks, the renowned cultural theorist, landscape designer, architectural historian and co-founder of Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres. Jencks, whose own garden at Portrack House, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, is world-famous, was commissioned by the Duke of Buccleuch in 2015 to design an inspiring landscape on the former open-cast coal mine near Sanquhar in Dumfries and Galloway. Read the history here.

It’s not far from the Duke of Buccleuch’s own home at Drumlanrig Castle, where we will go for lunch and much of the afternoon exploring, what is affectionately known as the ‘Pink Palace’, and its extensive grounds and gardens. The house itself is one of the finest examples of 17th-century Renaissance architecture in Scotland, and it has a garden to match. There is a long history of formal gardening on a grand scale, but at this time of year the woodland gardens, with their recent plantings of rhododendrons, may be of greater interest.

We return to Trigony for a relaxing evening and our end-of-tour dinner.

Today’s driving is approx. 35 miles/55 km

Dumfries House

We complete the tour with a visit to Dumfries House, home of the Dumfries and Bute families from 1760 until 1993, when the last full-time occupant, Lady Eileen, Dowager Marchioness of Bute, died.

Designed in the 1740s by the Adam brothers, Robert, John and James, for the 5th Earl of Dumfries, the house was completed on time and on budget in 1759. Lord Dumfries set out to furnish the house lavishly, spending considerable sums to do so, hand-picking the finest furniture from the workshop of Thomas Chippendale, and creating one of the most treasured interiors of the Scottish Enlightenment. The estate passed to his nephew and, in time, to John Patrick Crichton-Stuart (1847-1900), 3rd Marquess of Bute, who inherited the estate at the age of six months and was, by some accounts, the world’s wealthiest person.

Fast forward to 2007 and a consortium led by the then HRH The Prince of Wales, now King Charles, purchased the house and its contents, thus securing the house and one of the most important collections of Georgian Scottish and English furniture for the nation.

We’ll have lunch at Dumfries House before returning to Edinburgh Airport, where the tour ends. If you are staying in the UK and don't need, or wish, to return to Edinburgh, please let us know your onward travel plans, so that we may assist you in getting to your next destination.

Today’s driving is approx. 105 miles/170 km

Additional tour information

Tour area map

Sleeping & eating

We will stay at two hotels on this tour. Firstly, for four nights, at The Selkirk Arms, a veritable institution in the heart of Kirkcudbright and a hotel we have known for twenty or thirty years. Secondly, for the final two nights, at Trigony House Hotel, a country house hotel with an excellent reputation for its food.

We will dine in, twice, at the Selkirk Arms and dine out, twice, once at The Clachan Inn, a well-known, award-winning gastro pub, and once elsewhere, on the Saturday. We will dine in on both nights at Trigorny House Hotel.

Gardens & attractions

The south-west of Scotland boasts some of Scotland’s finest gardens, and so it should, the climate is perfect for horticulture and especially so for springtime gardens.

Besides two of RBGE’s three satellite botanic gardens which, as you may imagine, are superbly maintained, we visit Castle Kennedy, historic 18th-century gardens, and Threave Gardens, the National Trust for Scotland’s School of Horticulture.

Bedrooms & upgrades

Generally, we book standard rooms (however they are described) for the group, although these may vary from room to room in the hotel.

Single travellers
Single travellers will have their own room, typically a small double room or, very occasionally, a single-bedded room.

Upgrades
If you would like to upgrade your room, please look at the hotel’s website and then contact us with your request.

Joining instructions

The meeting arrangements, as outlined in Day 1 of the itinerary, above, will be confirmed by email at least 12 weeks before the start of the tour.

NB. Where we specify a hotel as the meeting point, it is because of its location, the ease of access to it for the minibus and because it affords customers, whether staying at the hotel or not, a comfortable and secure place to wait.

It is not because we endorse the hotel.

Accuracy & faithfulness

We try to be as accurate as we can, when describing the tour, and as faithful to the itinerary as we can, when undertaking it, but changes do occur, either necessarily or unavoidably, and we ask for your understanding when this happens.

Useful links

Click here for some useful links to other websites, notably websites of our national and regional tourism, heritage, horticultural, cultural organisations, and travel and transport websites.

Please let us know if any website links are dysfunctional.

Acknowledgements

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the assistance of the many guide books and websites we use in planning our tours.

Thank you.

“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”

— Quote Source