Dumfries & Galloway

Part of Bradt’s distinctive, award-winning series of ‘Slow’ travel guides to UK regions, the new, extensively updated third edition of Dumfries & Galloway (Slow Travel) is the sole full-blown guidebook to this beguiling southwest corner of Scotland. With intimate detail and insider tips from two southern Scotland experts, it reveals one of the country’s best-kept secrets through lively descriptions, historical anecdotes and hand-picked accommodation recommendations.

John Paul Jones, the ‘Father of the United States Navy’, was born here; his restored cottage is open to the public. Astronaut Neil Armstrong came to explore his connections at the Clan Armstrong Museum. The town of Lockerbie is home to the American sport of pickleball, while Dumfries had strong shipping links with North America during the 18th century. And it was from riverbanks river south of Dumfries that many thousands left for the New World.

Two hours from Edinburgh and Glasgow (whose airports receive direct flights from Chicago, Atlanta, Florida and the eastern seaboard), Dumfries and Galloway is an area of grand views, peace and isolation, bustling harbourside towns, craft shops and galleries, cafes and restaurants, mountains and coast, wildlife and outdoor pursuits… Even the weather can defy expectation, for the far west is warmed by the Gulf Stream. You can be at Scotland’s highest village in the morning, on a deserted sandy beach in the afternoon, and in a Dark Sky Park, gazing at the stars, in the evening. And the region is also home to Scotland’s ‘big five’ iconic animals: golden eagle, red squirrel, harbour seal, red deer, and European otter.

Human-related curiosities complement such natural wonder. Samye Ling was the first Tibetan monastery established in the west; the Famous Blacksmith’s Shop at Gretna Green still hosts a thousand marriages a year – and not just eloping couples either; Hallmuir Chapel is a WWII Ukrainian place of worship in the Dumfriesshire Dales; and Dumfries itself contains the house where Robert Burns, Scotland’s national bard, spent his last three years. Whatever your interest, Bradt’s Dumfries & Galloway (Slow Travel) is an ideal companion for a successful trip.