A simple itinerary today ending at a CAMRA Good Beer Guide pub. First stop is back at Creetown, yesterday's fleeting visit didn't allow us to stop at the museum
And what a delight it is too. The old boy saddles with being custodian for the day took great pleasure in explaining the area's fortune throughvgranite quarring. It was surprisingly interesting. The museum itself was jam packed full of very local memorabilia, which made everything at a human level, well everything but the story of the talking jackdaw which would perch on the home team's crossbar and croak encouragement!
And if you remember yesterday's blog with me lamenting to sad state of the Ellangowan Hotel you will know why I just had to snap this exhibit
Just along at Cairn Holy there's a nice chambered cairn. It's half a mile (or so) up a very narrow single track road with few passing places. Was it worth it? You can judge
Anyway, I digress from my Wicker Man narrative; next stop is Anwoth where the iconic graveyard and school house scenes were shot
Well finding these places excited me, at least!
Roads at the nearby Gatehouse Of Fleet (don't worry we'll meet an even stranger town name later) were closed and the town was jam packed with some very fit looking cyclists. Apparently The Gralloch is about to take place https://www.grallochgravel.com/
We still had a quick mooch but it is just another small town. This High Street gateway did seem to fit in well with the Wicker Man theme though
Kirkudbright however is an artists town. Even the car park has a statue
A bigger town and the artist connection (think Newly or St. Ives) means there are a lot of nice craft shops. Not that we want anything. The museum turned out to be an art gallery. There was actually much I liked (not always the case) and exhibitions by Andy Goldsworthy and, in particular, the amazing glass sculpture and etching by Alison Kinnaird were definitely worth the entrance fee (which was free, by the way!). If you have a mo, do look up Alison Kinnaird's work, it really worked for me.
It's almost pub time but not quite, so we drive round to Dalbeattie just to sit in the van for 30 minutes. There's a knock on the door and someone wants a quick tour of the van, he is thinking of getting a van, probably a bit larger, but wanted to know about van life. Funny, a few years ago, especially in Europe we would regularly get a ”I sink zis is nice van, pleez you show" but it's been a while now. Sounds like today's enquiror is a younger me; as well as the van both folk music and real ale is discussed! Small world.
Tonight's bed is in the carpark of The Laurie Arms, the only pub in the Haugh Of Urr (see I told you there would be an even more unusual name). It was local CAMRA pub of the year a couple of years ago but out of season it has just two real ales on, which rapidly drops to one this evening. Still the food is good and the clientele are obviously discerning if the owner of this 1942 Harley is anything to go by
Just 51 miles today but almost all in the direction of Gretna, gateway to England
