Rockcliffe, Kippford and Dundrennan Abbey

Nido's parked up in the car park of Dundrennan Abbey (///senses.ordering.pursue).  There's two more vans here.  It's a quiet little place, reminding me of a French Normandy village.  The Abbey is closed for renovation works and has been for a couple of years. It seems to be a theme with many of the old buildings in this part of Scotland; mainly they seem to be surveying the sites to see if the structures are safe.

As we had an excellent service point at Caerlaverock, we showered then topped up the fresh water tank and emptied the toilet - van life chores.  At home we have a cup of tea in bed first thing (like Derby and Joan!) before another with breakfast. With only one cuppa before leaving we were already in tea deficit - not a good place to be!  So the opportunity was taken to pull into the Drumburn Viewpoint to put this right...and the kettle on.  The viewpoint overlooks the Firth and we could see the Derwent and Buttermere fells in the distance over to our right.

The road between there and our next stop was dreadful. It's a 60mph two-lane road but with grand canyon-sized potholes.  Even though I had slowed down to about 30mph I still hit a couple; we both winced as the tyres banged and the van rattled, so much so that I pulled over to check I still had wheels.  In some places I slowed right down and manoeuvred around them over to the other side of the road - so beware if travelling there.

We saw a sign for Rockcliffe beach, so turned off and drove down to a large and spacious free car-park (///stove.beginning.spider).  It was relatively sunny and warm, but with some sharp showers passing through, so we took a rucksack and raincoats with us.  The beach is lovely, reminiscent of some of those we've visited in Brittany; in fact this whole area has a real feel of France.  Perhaps it's the Celtic influence.  I remembered we'd been here before when we visited D&G back in 2018. The walk took us uphill and into lovely deciduous woods carpeted with wild garlic and bluebells.  We dropped down onto a single track tarmac road at the bottom of a steep hill of granite. Apparently the granite was quarried for many years and was used to make bridges and cathedrals around the world. There were some really lovely (and big!) houses on the granite hilltop, overlooking the muddy estuary.

We walked on and reached the small village of Kippford (///whisk.cascaded.devoured), stopping to buy an ice cream and eating it sheltering from a shower in a covered seating area next to the water.  We chatted to a local waiting for the bus. He knew Anglesey quite well, having worked at the old aluminium plant.  We carried on up to the marina before reversing our route.  After a snooze, Cathy cooked a delicious meal of jacket potatoes cooked in the Ridge Monkey, with some sprouting broccoli and a warmed up chilli we'd brought with us.

The drive to Dundrennan Abbey took about half an hour, thankfully on much better roads than earlier! The long(er) drive gave the Ecoflow power pack time to charge up again.  Having said in my last post that the tech upgrades are doing well, I noticed this morning that the new router was out of power. The 12v-5v wired-in converter with USB-C seems to have failed, so it's been replaced with a normal USB-C cable for now; it'll go back to Amazon when we get home. Amazon seems to have become the new eBay, selling quite a lot of tat from China, some of it of dubious quality...lesson learned.

Parked up on a very slight cross slope (feet downwards thankfully) we had a cup of tea before I took Salty out for a wander into a field running alongside the Abbey.  On the way back I chatted to one of the motorhome owners, who was flying a drone above the Abbey.  The quality of the pictures it takes is amazing and such a great overhead view.  I enjoy watching a few YouTube channels of van life travellers and they all make good use of drone footage.

It should be a quiet night here with just the odd tractor and trailer rumbling past; silage cutting is in full swing here.  But before we button up the van for the night, a little bit of information about the Abbey:

Dundrennan was home to Cistercian monks. Although very austere, the order became very wealthy over time, and their abbeys became places of grand architecture and decoration.  For centuries the monks kept up a daily cycle of worship here. They were assisted by lay brothers. These were members of the monastery who weren't monks: they grew crops and tended sheep in the surrounding fields, generating huge profits from the wool trade.  The abbey declined following the Protestant Reformation of 1560, but was to enjoy one final day in the spotlight of history.  It was here, in May 1568, that the deposed Mary Queen of Scots spent her last hours in her homeland, on her way to exile in England.

Drumburn Viewpoint

Between Rockcliffe and Kippford

Dundrennan Abbey

Tea for Two

Caerlaverock castles and aire

Nido's parked up a the Caerlaverock 'Castle Corner Campsite' (///shave.patch.coverings), but it's pretty much an aire. In fact, it's so like an aire that sat here looking out at vans from several countries, we could very easily be in France.  The Dumfries and Galloway communities are smashing it when it comes to motorhome and campervan park-ups.  Caerlaverock Community Council only ask for a £10 donation (cash or via Paypal) which we've paid; this is an absolute bargain for this wonderful park-up, including the full service point.

We had a very peaceful night's sleep at the Barrasgate Farm aire, waking early to clear blue skies and warm sunshine.  On the way out I popped over to speak to the owner - Marion - to thank her for providing such a welcome stopover.  We had a good chat and she knows what campervan and motorhome owners want, so I wish her success and we'll definitely stop there again if passing.

Just a few minutes down the road is the Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve (///shine.simulates.trim).  We pulled up in the small car park, alongside another motorhome and walked through the farm yard and long the tree-lined lane into the nature reserve. 90% of the Reserve is flooded by the high tide twice a day, providing food for nearly 140,000 wintering birds like pintail, shelduck and oystercatcher.  But spring is here now with lots of warm sunshine today. We walked along the well maintained boardwalks, through the reed beds and in to a bird-hide, overlooking the Solway Firth.  There was a profusion of skylarks and lapwings; we could also hear small birds in the reeds but don't know enough to identify them.   

It was then another short hop to this aire.  We walked through the most wonderful mixed deciduous forest, with an abundance of old oak trees and loads of new saplings.  The trees were moss covered and there was plenty of oxalis (wood sorrel) to chew on, with its distinct sharp lemony flavour.  The path meandered through the forest, occasionally popping out to provide lovely views over the Solway Firth.  We arrived at the 'old' Caerlaverock castle first.  There are just the foundations to see now, but there are information boards and markers on the ground to show the halls, courtyard and towers.  Further on was the younger and more substantial 'new' Caerlaverock Castle.  It's an unusual triangular shape with towers and is surrounded by a water moat.  First built in the 13th Century, it was later 'blinged-up' by the Maxwell family in the 17th Century.

After lunch we were planning to move on to another stop just 3 miles up the road, where we planned to spend the night.  Glencaple Pier  (///basically.soldiers.fuse) has parking for several vans, but is popular due to the excellent adjacent cafe and the pub across the road.  In addition, it has superb views over the River Nith, the estuary with the Lakeland Fells in the distance.  It was already very busy so we hightailed it back to Caerlaverock Castle Corner and bagged our old spot, just getting in as several more vans arrived behind us - phew!

We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out, enjoying the warm sunshine, peace and quiet.  After dinner, as the sun was still shining, we walked back to the castle to wander around, with the lengthening shadows throwing a different light and the ravens and swallows enjoying their sole access to the ruins.

The tech updates to the van seem to be working out.  The Ecoflow River Max 2 is really making a difference in our ability to stay off-grid for longer.  At the moment I'm recharging it as we drive, but with only short hops, we may eventually need to find some electric hook up to fully boost it up.  Perhaps in the future I'll also invest in the solar panels.

Talking of Solar, the new NDS MPPT solar controller is doing its job.  The leisure battery remains topped up and we've no worries about running out of power. The old PWM controller was clearly bust as the battery never seemed to be full, even in the brightest sunshine.

Finally, the Netgear Nighthawk MR1100 LTE router is giving us much better mobile internet access.  The SMARTY SIM doesn't seem to be compatible, so I've replaced it with a Tesco Mobile one for now.  When we travel to France I plan to purchase a SIM from FREE, which will give us more data than we could ever use.  Alongside the new router, the Poynting Puck 2 aerial fitted to the van roof is definitely helping to boost the signal.  So fingers crossed, the tech upgrades are going to really make a difference in the future.

Caerlaverock Castle

Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve

Nature Reserve parking

Excellent service point

At least five different nationalities!

 

Wales to Scotland

Nido's parked up on an aire....yes an aire!  It's a basic one, but it's still somewhere we could just turn up, pay a small fee and stay overnight.  Thank you Dumfries and Galloway!  Thank you Scotland!  England and Wales could learn a lot from this.

We've been to Dumfries and Galloway before, back in 2018, when we stayed a few nights before heading north on our way to the Isle of Mull.  D&G tends to be somewhere most people drive straight past on the way to the Western Isles, but it has a quiet beauty all of its own, with a peaceful coast lined with small villages, to dark skies forest.  We have a week to explore, before dropping down to the Lake District to meet up with old and very dear friends.  A week will be plenty of time to get a good feel for the area, do plenty of walking and enjoy the nature and scenery.

The journey up from Anglesey is about 230 miles and should have taken about 5 hours.  However, I hadn't banked on the M56 being closed for the whole weekend, with all traffic being diverted off around Runcorn, before rejoining just near where we used to live.  This added over two hours to the journey and, for small island people like us, who are used to a much slower, quieter pace of life now, the amount of traffic and noise was overwhelming!  So we were glad to arrive at this very quiet and peaceful aire, about 3 miles outside the village of Annan.

The aire is called Barrasgate Farm (///propelled.shifting.point).  It's on the Search for Sites app, is supported by the Dumfries and Galloway Council and is also an accredited aire with Campaign for Real Aires (CAMPRA).  It's basic - just an area of hardstanding or an adjacent grassy field on a farm.  At the moment the only facility is a fresh water tap but it's a work in progress and the owner's keen to expand the facilities in time.  It costs £5 and you can just turn up or, as I did, email the owner to check if it was OK to stay; I received a very quick and helpful reply.

After a 7 hour journey the first thing was a hot cup of tea and stretch out the kinks in my lower back - I'm getting on now (60 this year!) and long drives are not as easy as they used to be.  Heavy rain started as we entered Scotland, but this soon moved east and was replaced by sunny skies, albeit with a cool breeze.  We decided to eat first, then headed out for a walk so that we and Salty could stretch out after the hours in the van.  The aire is about a 10 minute walk from the small village of Powfoot, which sits on the Solway Firth. The tide was out and we took a stroll along the foreshore before walking along the coast road, past a row of small, terraced white cottages, before reversing our route back to the van.  Everything is quiet here and as the sky darkens, we're all shattered and ready for an early night.

I've marked up a few places to stay on the Search for Sites app, which will take us on a slow amble west along the coast, before heading inland to explore some of the lochs, castles and forest that this area has to offer.  There might even be a pub stop thrown in at some point! 

Wigtown - Scotland's Book Town

Tuesday 11 September 2018

Nido’s parked up at a CMC CL at Newark Farm, just off the A76 near Sanquhar.  Despite the proximity to the road it’s a tranquil spot, with lovely views over the hills, which were clear when we arrived but have now disappeared due to torrential Scottish ‘sunshine’!  I picked this as a stopover on the way to Argyll, so tomorrow will be a bit of a transit day to get us into the Loch Lomond area.  

It rained and the wind blew for most of the night, reducing at about 0430.  I managed to get out first thing for some photos, before we drove back up the peninsula to Wigtown.  This is a small market town with twelve bookshops, some small and eclectic, others very large and with a variety of books.  Cathy was in her element and, I have to say, was very restrained, only visiting three of the bookshops - clearly we’ll need to return!  Next week from 21 - 30 September is the Wigtown Annual Book Festival, so perhaps we’ll come for that next year.  I plugged in the co-ordinates for the CL, which allowed us to drive through part of the Galloway Forest Park, making up 300 square miles and known as the ‘Highlands of the Lowlands’. It was the UK’s first Dark Sky Park, due to the very low population and therefore minimal artificial light.  We stopped at the Wild Goat Park car park for lunch; no goats were seen here although we did spot some just before we pulled in.  Moving on, the next pull-over was the The Red Deer Range, a purpose-built hide from which to view the red deer.  We went armed with cameras and binoculars, thinking we’d need to be patient and view them from a distance. However, the head stag had other ideas!  He was laying down right in front of the hide, with his harem and the younger stags about 50m behind him.  Clearly he’s used to people as a family came in and the young child fed him carrots.  Onwards, we were held up due to road resurfacing, but they eventually waved us through; I wish I’d found an alternative route as on arrival at the CL I found black tar splashed up most of the driver’s side of the van.  Luckily a good spray of WD40 on a cloth got rid of it, but it took an hour to get the job done.  By then the rain was coming over the hills, so we shut the van door and I prepared a pork curry for tonight’s dinner.  As we’re on electric hook-up, we’ll charge all the things and make the most of the opportunity of water top up to have a hot shower tomorrow morning.

Grey Mare's Tail waterfall

Any carrots?

Watching over his harem in the distance

Solway Coastal Road to Isle of Whithorn

Monday 10 September 2018

Nido’s parked up at the end of the harbour road at the Isle of Whithorn.  It’s a small village with cottages nestling around a natural harbour, where the Irish shell fishing boats land their catch.  It’s not really an isle, but more of a peninsula. It’s another lovely wild camping spot with a great view out to sea and into the harbour, although the other thing that’s wild tonight is the weather - the wind and rain is battering poor old Nido’s port side, rocking us around!  It might be some time before these posts are live as the MiFi isn’t picking up any service.  I’m not sure if it’s the unit or the data SIM, but we still have our phones for route planning and research.

We both slept well in the peace and quiet of New Abbey - a great first stop in Scotland.  After breakfast, I topped up our fresh water and replenished the 10L container at the churchyard tap, before walking down to the village shop for some milk.  A group of touring cyclists of various nationalities had stopped to take a look around the Abbey and perhaps make use of the cafe which was now open.

We left and headed south on the coastal road, soon stopping off at Drumburn Viewpoint, looking out towards where the Nith meets the Solway.  Visibility wasn’t great so we couldn’t see Skiddaw, but could just about make out the fells of Buttermere in the Lake District. There was a campervan parked up at the viewpoint, hidden from the road by a high hedge - a nice little wild camping spot.  We carried on following the coastal road, soon turning off left down to the seaside village of Carsethorn.  It has a a lovely row of cottages strung along the waterfront, with a separate garden across the road right next to the sea.  There’s a lovely looking pub called the Steamboat Inn, with parking opposite (another wild camping spot?).  Once a historic port, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries there were frequent sailings from here to the American and Australian colonies.  Just up the road is the cottage where John Paul Jones was born in July 1747.  He became a naval hero of the American Revolution and is regarded as the ‘Father of the American Navy’.

Reversing our route, the next stop was the RSPB Reserve at Mersehead, an extensive wetland and salt marsh area supporting a range of birds.  I’m not very good at bird recognition, but the whooper swans and barnacle geese were easy to spot and a large flock of lapwings were hunkered down in the grass.  We visited the two well-maintained hides and followed the trail towards the sea and along the windswept beach with the waves pounding far out in the estuary, before returning to the car park.  We dodged a few spots of rain and, as we drove on to the village of Rockliffe, it started to rain harder, so on arrival we had a brew in the van.  We did get wet walking down into the village but soon dried off in the strong wind.  Rockliffe, a tiny hamlet with a rocky bay, Victorian cottages, villas and lush gardens has an exotic feel. The 20 acre Rough Island out in the bay is a bird sanctuary and apparently can be reached on foot at low tide.  We drove on to the next village of Kippford - with its 18th century harbour used to accommodate large ships - before the 34 mile drive to our current stop on the Isle of Whithorn. On the drive here we passed Dundrennan, which is the site of the annual Wicker Man Festival (remember the film where a young Edward Woodward is sacrificially burned alive inside the wicker man effigy). The film was actually made a few miles from this location, at Burrow Head, the most southerly point of the Machars.  We also passed the village of Garlieston, where in nearby Rigg Bay the Mulberry Harbours used in the Normandy Landings were first built and tested.  Having seen the real Mulberry Harbours in Arromanche, it was interesting to see they were tested so far from enemy spies’ eyes. 

Whithorn village, just a little north of where we’re parked, is known as the cradle of Christianity in Scotland. It was the base for Scotland’s first saint - St Ninian - and pilgrims still follow the trail to worship at the roofless ruins of the cathedral and then carrying on to St Ninian’s Cave, a few miles south west of Whithorn.  The pilgrimage continues to this day, with 500-600 pilgrims gathering there on the last Sunday in August every year.

Our first full day in Scotland has been really interesting. There’s so much to see and do and we’ve been impressed with the well-kept villages, with no litter and the peace and solitude - it very much reminds us of Normandy.  It’s perhaps a part of Scotland most people by-pass on the way to the large cities and the Highlands and Islands.  But I’d recommend spending some time exploring the area and we’ll certainly return.  Tomorrow we’re visiting Wigtown - Scotland’s book village (the equivalent of Hay on Wye) - where Cathy is after some second hand natural history books.  Then we’ll explore some of the Galloway Forest (well known as a ‘dark sky’ area but perhaps somewhere to spend more time when the skies are clearer), before stopping off at a CL on our journey northwards into Argyll.  Until then, it’s time to listen to the wind and rain batter the van and the seabirds crying as they try to fly through it!

Rough Island - off Rickliffe

Isle of Whithorn harbour

St Ninian's Chapel

Lots of memorials etched on stones

First trip to Scotland

Sunday 9 September 2018

This is our first trip to Scotland together. Cathy visited her brother when he was based at Faslane in the 1970s and I spent time in Glasgow when HMS BRILLIANT was building and Faslane when HMS WESTMINSTER was in refit - so spent quite a lot of time in Scotland in my first and last ships.  We’re looking forward to exploring and getting to know Western Scotland over the next couple of weeks.  We have a rough plan of heading to Dumfries and Galloway first of all, to explore the Solway Firth coastline and the dark night skies of the Galloway Forest, before heading north to the lochs and peninsulas of Argyll, hopefully with a few days on the Isle of Mull.  But much will depend on the weather and what we find on the way - we don’t want to pass nice places in a rush to drive north. 

We didn’t rush around this morning; I was out most of yesterday around Holyhead Mountain with the Mon Search and Rescue team on exercise and was quite knackered by the end of it, so slept well last night!  We left Anglesey at 1100 and steadily drove up the motorway, with none of the usual Sunday holdups now the school holidays are finished and everyone is back to work. My intention was to break our journey at a C&CC Temporary Holiday Site in Kendal but on arrival it didn’t look inviting, close to a busy road and a bit soulless.  So after a quick stop to check out other places to stay on the Search for Sites App (highly recommended - a really good app backed up by a comprehensive an easy-to-use website), I plugged in the co-ordinates for a wild camping spot south of Dumfries.  Scotland is much more relaxed about wild camping, with lots of visitor car parks available for free overnight parking. 

An hour and a half later we pulled into the car park by Sweetheart Abbey in the lovely village of New Abbey.  This is a small village which nuzzles up to the northern shoulder of Criffel, with lovely little stone cottages on either side of the road.  After a hot meal in the van, we walked around the outside of Sweetheart Abbey, a Cistercian abbey founded by Lady Devorgilla. When she died she was buried with her husband’s heart (he pre-deceased her by several years you’ll be pleased to know!) and the monks rechristened the abbey dulce cor, meaning ‘sweetheart’. On our quick walk around the village before the rain started again, we also came across the New Abbey Corn Mill, a restored and working water mill.  We’re the only motorhome parked here and it’s now very quiet and dark.  After a long drive, food, walk and a cup to tea, we’re ready for a good sleep and setting off to explore the coastline tomorrow.