Kirkcudbright
September 24, 2001
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.
