THE MULL OF GALLOWAY AND DRUMMORE

The Mull of Galloway is not only the most southerly point of the Rhinns Of Galloway, it is also the most southerly place in Scotland.  Visitors can enjoy extensive views of the Solway Firth and even the Isle Of Man.  When I was in Peel recently on a visit to the Isle Of Man I could make out what I was pretty sure was the southern end of the Rhinns Of Galloway.  As befits such a geographical distinction, it has a suitably handsome, whitewashed lighthouse, known as Stevenson Tower, since it was built by the prolific builder of lighthouses, Robert Stevenson.  The lighthouse, which is 26 metres high, came into operation in 1830.  It is open to visitors, who can visit an exhibition in the Engine Room and, when open, can access the tower.  Aside from lighthouse enthusiasts, the Mull Of Galloway is a magnet for birdwatchers, being an RSPB site.  Gullemots, kittiwakes, peregrine falcons, puffins and gannets are the species to watch out for, and in summer they are joined by basking butterflies. 

While the Mull Of Galloway is the most southerly point in Scotland, the village of Drummore is the most southerly Scottish village.  The harbour started out in the 1800s as a point of departure for the locally produced lime, and for imported coal, but it later turned to defence use when the Ministry of Defence took it over with the establishment of West Freugh and Luce Bay bombing ranges.  RAF West Freugh was an armament training camp just before World War II but after war broke out the training activities were expanded, including the use of a bombing range.  The MOD have since moved out, leaving the harbour to more pleasurable pursuits.  Drummore is a popular small resort, thanks in part to the nice sandy beach in Drummore Bay.  Out at sea there are a number of small rocky islands called The Scars which are managed by the RSPB and host colonies of gannets during the breeding season.  

Map of the area. 

Mull of Galloway lighthouse - geograph.org.uk - 592045. Photo by Derek Ball, via Wikimedia Commons

PORT LOGAN

Port Logan (formerly Port Nessock) has experienced the same problems as Portpatrick (see previous post) in its attempts to provide protection from the rough seas along this stretch of coast.  In the early 19th century one Colonel Andrew McDouall, the laird of Logan, had the idea of building a harbour development in order to profit from the Irish cattle trade but the sea put paid to his ambitions.  However, the village does have a pier with a charming stone lighthouse at the end.  The village of Port Logan, with its whitewashed cottages, was the setting for the BBC series Two Thousand Acres Of Sky, which screened in the early Noughties.  The village played the role of the fictional island of Ronansay off the coast of Skye.  In 1944 a wartime tragedy occurred at Port Logan when a Douglas C-47 belonging to the USAAF, en route to the USA and carrying wounded soldiers, crashed into the cliffs at Port Logan killing all 22 passengers and crew.

There is a sandy beach to the north of the village which is reached by wooden stairways, and from a here a short walk leads to Logan Fish Pond, created in 1800 to provide fish for the nearby Logan House.  The fish were so tame that they answered a bell to be fed.  Nowadays the pond is still home to around 30 fish, mainly cod, and they are still as tame as ever, so much so that they can be hand fed by visitors.  Logan House has some fine gardens known as Logan House Gardens, but they are a private estate, unlike the nearby Logan Botanic Garden, which is open to visitors.  The latter has a variety of fascinating areas crammed with exotic plants, some rarely found in Britain.  There is the Woodland Garden, the Walled Garden and the Terrace Garden with its avenue of Chusan Palms.  In addition there are the rhododendron collections and over 50 species of eucalyptus. 

Map of the area. 

Port Logan. Photo by Patrick Lee, via Wikimedia Commons

PORTPATRICK

Most of you will have heard of Gretna Green, the town by the Scotland/England border where lovers have traditionally eloped to get married in secret.  What is less well known is that Portpatrick once served a similar purpose for Irish lovers.  Until 1826 the Church of Scotland took advantage of Portpatrick's position on the Rhinns of Galloway, the closest point on the Scottish coast to Ireland, by running a profitable line in quick and easy weddings with no questions asked.  The crossing from Ulster was just 21 miles, and eloping couples could be married within a couple of days of disembarking in Scotland.  Aside from blushing brides and their grooms, this crossing was used to send mail to Ireland and to bring cattle back the other way.  However, Portpatrick's time as a ferry port was to prove short-lived due to the ferocity of the sea off this coast.  Over the years the efforts of John Smeaton (he of Smeaton's Tower in Plymouth), John Rennie and Thomas Telford proved unequal to the task of protecting the port through their respective harbour and lighthouse constructions, so that the packet boats were forced to move to Stranraer, which had the advantage of a much calmer disposition being located on the shores of Loch Ryan.

That is not to say that Portpatrick became a backwater with the departure of the packet boats.  It has developed into a much loved and attractive small resort offering sailing and other water-borne leisure activities.  There is a small sandy beach backed by cliffs with a clifftop golf course.  The ruined 17th-century Old Church, or St Andrew's Kirk has a distinctive Irish-style round tower; the graveyard here is a reminder of the savagery of the seas off this coast judging by the number of graves housing victims of shipwrecks hereabouts.  Portpatrick is one end of a long-distance path, the 212-mile Southern Upland Way (the other end being at Cockburnspath on the North Sea).  For a shorter walk, head along the clifftop path towards the south, which offers fine sea views and which leads to the ruined 16th century Dunskey Castle.

Live streaming webcam view.

Map of the area.  

Portpatrick Harbour - geograph.org.uk - 1012939. Photo by Arnold Price, via Wikimedia Commons

KIRKCOLM

The name Kirkcolm applies to both a village and its surrounding area, in the north of the Rhinns Of Galloway.  The name probably derives from the local church (kirk) which has St Columba's Well in its churchyard, although it was once known by the more English-sounding name of Stewarton.  Nearby Wig Bay has a sandbank called The Scar which is home to a large colony of nesting migrant terns in the summer, as well as attracting eider ducks and oystercatchers.  During the war the bay was home to RAF Wig Bay, and a slipway can be seen which is a reminder of the fact that flying boats and seaplanes operated from here during both world wars.  A minor road heading north-east from the village of Kirkcolm leads to Corsewall Point with its lighthouse, one of many built by Robert Stevenson.  The views from the Point are spectacular, taking in Ailsa Craig and Ireland, which is relatively close to this part of the coast.  If, like me, you enjoy large ships going backwards and forwards, it is also a great vantage point for watching the ferries departing from and arriving at nearby Cairnryan.   To the north of Kirkcolm is Clachan Heughs where the woodland contains trees which were laid out in the exact formation of Sir John Moore's troops at the Battle of Corunna in 1809.  The polar explorer Sir John Ross (see the Stranraer post) was born in Kirkcolm. 

Map of the area. 

   Corsewall Lighthouse from Cairnside Farm - geograph.org.uk - 293900. Photo by alice shirley, via Wikimedia Commons.

STRANRAER

Stranraer's fortunes as a port have followed a somewhat different trajectory from those of nearby Cairnryan (see previous post).  Whereas Cairnryan started out from next to nothing and grew into an important military, then civilian port, Stranraer has gone in the opposite direction.  The harbour was built in the mid-18th century, but it was not until the arrival of the railway in 1861 that the town became the area's main port.  In 1872 the town became the main terminal for steam packets to Northern Ireland, and these services continued until recently with Stena and P & O both operating services from there.  However, they have both since moved to new facilities in Cairnryan.  This has left the town with the dilemma of what to do with its waterfront, which is why a regeneration of the waterfront area is now underway. 

The origins of the town date back to 1511, with the building of the Castle of St John, a medieval tower house which was flanked by a medieval chapel, since demolished.  In the late 17th century it was the headquarters of John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee (aka Bluidy Claverhouse), a much feared persecutor of Covenanters.  The castle later came to be used as a prison, a courtroom and a police station, and this period of its use is remembered in some of the exhibits on show to visitors.  There is a handsome building on the waterfront which was built in 1820 for the Arctic explorer and naval officer Sir John Ross, the son of a minister in the local Inch parish.  The building is now the North West Castle hotel, which has its own indoor curling rink.  The Old Town Hall was built in 1776 and now houses the Stranraer Museum, which includes displays on Sir John Ross and his nephew James Clark Ross, also a polar explorer.  As well as the attractions of the town itself, Stranraer is the gateway to the Rhins of Galloway, the distinctive hammer-head shaped piece of land, which includes the Mull of Galloway, Scotland's most southerly point. 

Map of the area. 

"Millennium Centre", George Street, Stranraer - geograph.org.uk - 164305. Photo by Oliver Dixon, via Wikimedia Commons

CAIRNRYAN

A glance at the map to the south of Ballantrae reveals a very striking geographical feature: an elongated chunk of land called the Rinns of Galloway, which has the appearance of a hammer head.  The wider part to the north wraps itself around Loch Ryan, a stretch of water which has seen plenty of wartime and peacetime activity over the years.  The settlement of Cairnyran on the east shore of the loch was established in the early 18th century with the construction of Lochryan House, along with housing for the workers from the Lochryan Estate.  The village was transformed into a major port by the onset of World War II when the Army built three piers and a military railway link to Stranraer and the resulting facility became the No. 2 Military Port.  Among the most significant activities to take place here was the building of the floating Mulberry harbours used in the D-Day landings.  At the end of the war the Atlantic U-Boat fleet surrendered in Loch Ryan and was anchored in Cairnryan before being scuttled (deliberately sunk) in the North Channel as part of Operation Deadlight.  There was further periodic military activity after the war until most of the infrastructure was dismantled in the early 1960s.  The village then became a centre for ship breaking; the ships sent for demolition included such luminaries as the Ark Royal.  By 1990 Soviet Navy submarines were being dismantled for scrap in Cairnryan.  Nowadays, Cairnryan is still an important port, but with more leisurely voyages in mind.  A large, modern ferry port has been built there with the purpose of providing links to Northern Ireland: Stena Line operates a service to Belfast, while P & O Irish Sea takes care of the Cairnryan to Larne route.

Map of the area. 

Passing to the west of Cairnryan Pier en route to Larne - geograph.org.uk - 1322251. Photo by Des Colhoun, via Wikimedia Commons

BALLANTRAE

People who, like me, enjoy looking at old photographs may want to check out the Ballantrae website, which has a nice collection of old images of the village, some looking out to sea, with the ever-present Ailsa Craig on the horizon, others showing street scenes with the residents in their fashion of the day.  The website also has a fascinating timeline of events, happy and sad, which have taken place there over the years, starting from 1806.  Another interesting feature of the website is a table showing a comparison between the 1900 village and the present one.  As a sad sign of the times, it reveals that in 1900 there were 6 grocers, but only one now; there was a baker in 1900, now there are none; and in 1900 there was a post office, while the present-day post office is inside the grocers.  The shingle beach at Ballantrae is a nature reserve, classed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with nesting grounds in the nearby cliffs.  The beach lies between the harbour at the north end and the mouth of the River Stinchar at the south end, which is dominated by the ruins of Ardstinchar Castle, once home to the Kennedys of Bargany, where Mary Queen of Scots spent a night in August 1566.  The village was immortalised in literature in a book by Robert Louis Stevenson called The Master of Ballantrae, about a family feud during the Jacobite Uprising.  Ballantrae has its own Gala Week, which this year starts on 29th June, preceded by the crowning of the Gala Queen and Gala King on 14th June.

Map of the area. 

Ardstinchar Castle and bridge, Ballantrae, Scotland-LCCN2001703588. Photo courtesy of United States Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons.