“It’s a moderate walk and should take us an hour and a half,” Dougie announced to me, as I was happily scoffing toast and lounging about in our gorgeous holiday home, Shingle Lodge. I thought long and hard about this suggestion then realised it was a great opportunity to test out my new Tough […]
Graduation road trip: Shingle Lodge at Knockinaam Lodge hotel
“We rumbled slowly into a land of little wooded glens and then to a great wide moorland place, gleaming with lochs, with high blue hills showing northwards.” John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps. Buchan’s thrilling novel, with spies, secrets and a seemingly unending chase, was one of the first things I noticed when we entered Shingle Lodge, […]
A walk in the Lincolnshire Limewoods: lovely, though not quite Austria.
If you’ve been reading my blogs lately, you’ll realise I’m starting to enjoy walking. It no longer feels like a trial, to be endured until a coffee shop is reached. Maybe it’s an age thing. Once your children leave home you morph into a rambler, taking pleasure in windproof jackets and hidden pockets in rucksacks. […]
Graduation road trip: Blackaddie Country House Hotel
When I think of our previous visit to Dumfries and Galloway last summer, what sticks in my memory is the food. Dougie and I were fortunate to enjoy excellent cuisine at all four of our chosen hotels but our favourite was the dinner served by Scotland’s current Chef of the Year, Ian McAndrew, at the […]
Graduation road trip: Alloway, Robert Burns’ birthplace
It was hard to say goodbye to Shingle Lodge in Knockinaam. It had been our idyllic hideaway on the western coast of Scotland but we were looking forward to moving on, spending a night at the Blackaddie Hotel, another favourite from our previous visit to Dumfries and Galloway. We had no real plan for the […]
Culzean castle and Country Park
While we were staying in Dumfries and Galloway at the beginning of September, we couldn’t resist taking a drive up the coast to Ayrshire to see Culzean Castle and Country Park. The drive itself was a pleasure, hugging the coast all the way whilst looking out to the granite island dome of Ailsa Craig in the […]
Places to visit in Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway is an area of Scotland that borders England and yet it can often be overlooked by visitors. After just a week travelling around the area, I would recommend turning left at Gretna Green and exploring a beautiful part of the country. The road network is good, with the main A75 slicing through the region to […]
Douglas comes home to Threave Castle
Earlier this year readers of the BBC’s Countryfile magazine voted Dumfries and Galloway the ‘Holiday Destination of the Year’ award. You can’t have a more resounding recommendation than an accolade from such a trusted, wonderfully British establishment. John Craven is on the Countryfile team and I’ve believed everything he’s said since avidly watching Newsround as a child. In writing […]