After our excellent Scottish breakfast and a stop to photograph
some beautiful blue-purple hydrangeas, we headed east along
Wigtown Bay and a visit to Cairnholy I, considered “the
best of the Clyde group of long cairns in the region.”
It included an inner burial chamber with massive side-slabs
and a concave horned facade of eight tall pillars.
We crossed the Water of Fleet and the Gatehouse of Fleet
and continued on to the beautiful town of Kirkcudbright (pronounced
Kir-coo-bree) where the River Dee flows into Kircudbright
Bay. With its lovely flowers, interesting houses and shops,
ruined MacClellan castle dating from 1582 and harbor-side
views, it was easy to see why this area has long been a favorite
of painters. Interestingly, the author Dorothy Sayers used
this area for one of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, The
Five Red Herrings.
We drove to Castle Douglas where we had Cocky Leeky soup
for lunch at the Douglas Arms. We spotted the Irving Bakery,
stocked up on delicious sweets and were off to find the Craigadam
Hotel, which was our home for the next four nights. This lovely
hotel turned out to be a “shooting lodge“ and it
was quite interesting to see the hunters with their bag of
pheasants and partridges at the end of the day.
Our dinner, served family style at an enormous table in the
dining room, included haggis with neeps and tatties, delicious
lamb and vegetables and a wonderful molded dessert made with
homemade ice cream. Coffee was served to guests in the lounge
where a fire in the fireplace provided additional ambiance.
Bedrooms had been recently redecorated different styles; Guy
and Betty had the Highland Room with Scottish decorations
and tartan; Charlie and Jean were in the Chinese Room with
lacquered furniture and Chinese decorations. The rooms also
had electric mattress pads which made it more pleasant for
some of the party.
