Via (our favourite) Tebay services and a supermarket in Dumfries, we headed for Gatehouse of Fleet, a small town on the edge of the Galloway Forest Park in Scotland. En route (and during our trip) we were hooked on the audio book of Stacey Hall’s The Familiars, a fictionalised account of what happened in Pendle in 1612. Our remote coastal cottage was windswept and atmospheric, but it didn’t take long to unpack and feel at home by setting up a Shakespeare-themed jigsaw to do over the four evenings and we settled down to enjoy a lasagne we’d made back home in Saltaire. The cottage had restful views, by day and by night, with lights twinkling across the waters and, on some evenings, dramatic sunsets as well as a heavenly firmament of stars. Bliss.
Our first stop was Drumlanrig Castle, an impressive, imposing and grand pile with glorious grounds – borders, lawns, woodland copses, a waterfall, a bog area, a winter garden and an Andy Goldsworthy arch. There were sylvan summer houses hidden around and, decorating lived-in interiors in the castle itself, an astonishing collection of artworks, two of which over-excited me: a Rembrandt and a Breughel. The young, intelligent guide was dry and witty so the whole place came to life. By way of contrast, but no less interesting imho, Cardoness Castle (with another enthusiastic Scottish custodian) was a one-room per floor castle (a “Tower House”) on a giant mound overlooking the Fleet Estuary. Our first garden fix came courtesy of Cally Gardens, first created in the 18th century and which included a giant, walled romantic garden undergoing fascinating restoration. A much bigger site was Threave Gardens – a perfect place to picnic and large enough to accomodate cascades, a rock garden, a bizarre mushroom-shaped shelter, a “secret” garden, a garden of contemplation, and a mixture of formal borders and informal meadow-style borders.
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