Wednesday 27th May

Today we knew the rain would come at some point so we made the most of the dry morning.  We set off for Kirkcudbright (pronnounced koo-koo-bree) first thing which is apparently a town of arts and crafts.  I say apparently because there were actually more cafes and general shops than arts and crafts.  Yes there were 3 galleries or so which I get, but no crafts whatsoever.  We were both very disappointed what with the place having such a wonderful reputation.  We visited MacLellan's Castle (built by Sir Thomas MacLellan in the 1570s and 80s), as we were there, before moving back towards Isle of Whithorn with the intention of stopping off at various places. By this time we thought the rain had come early, but it turned out to be a light shower.  We also discovered that the Scots also complain about the weather just as much as the English - "Honestly, what is this?!" said a dog walker as she passed us, gesturing toward the sky, "This is supposed to be Summer!!".  Quite!


We stopped of at Cardoness Castle, residence for the McCulloch family in the late 1400s, which was oddly sinister on the outside yet rather spacious and rather nice inside.  This is also when the rain seemed to stop.....on we continued to Cairnholy I and II neolithic chambered cairns, the first one more elaborate than the other with a more grand facade of built up stones.  After having lunch there, we then stopped off at Carsluith Castle which was very much like Cardoness, only more friendly on the outside and generally a little smaller with a kinder (wider) spiral staircase!

The clouds started bubbling up some, so we thought we would make our way back to Isle of Whithorn, stopping off for a cream tea on the way.  Of we went, the rain starting up again and this time deciding to settle in.  We stopped off at The Story of Whithorn cafe for a very nice cream tea and I bought a couple more souvenirs as I was feeling a little frustated at the lack of local crafts available in the area and this place was my backup!  The rain was heavier when we left, but we hadn't got far to go.  We stopped off at the cafe/shop around the corner from where we were staying - Mathew went to the pub to book a table for Friday night, and I went intto the shop to buy some stained glass window hangers (local crafts!).  By the time we got back to the car it was tipping it down, so we dried off at the cottage, and had tea later as we'd already had some with our scones earlier..!  We sat in the warmth and dry listening to the rain hammering down outside.