The case for doing almost nothing in Galloway

The Case for Doing Almost Nothing in Galloway

There is a particular kind of pressure that comes with going away for a weekend. You arrive with a saved list on your phone. There are walks to complete, restaurants to try, viewpoints to find and villages you’ve been told not to miss. Two days suddenly becomes a surprisingly complicated exercise in logistics.

Galloway is a good place to resist all of that. This is not because there is nothing to do here. Quite the opposite. There are miles of coastline, beaches, forest, hills and lochs. There are harbour towns, galleries, mountain-bike trails, castles and some very good places to eat. But Galloway doesn’t really demand an itinerary. In fact, some of the best days here are the ones where you don’t get through very much at all.

Start with one thing

Rather than planning a day around five different stops, choose one. It might be a walk along the coast at Brighouse Bay, a couple of hours wandering around Kirkcudbright, or a cycle along the quiet roads along the Borgue coast. Then leave the rest of the day alone.

One of the pleasures of this part of Scotland is that the journey between places often becomes part of the day itself. Roads wind through farmland and woodland rather than taking the most direct route. You round a corner and catch sight of the Solway. A promising-looking track disappears towards the coast. Sheep or cows may provide the occasional traffic jam. There is rarely much reason to hurry.

Walk without making it an expedition

Galloway has some serious walking. You can climb the Merrick, head deep into Galloway Forest Park or spend an entire day following the coast. But not every walk needs to be an achievement. Some of the nicest are a couple of hours long: through the woodland around St Mary’s Isle, along the coast at Brighouse Bay, or above Gatehouse of Fleet towards Trusty’s Hill and Rutherford’s Monument.

And sometimes you don’t even need a named route. Scotland’s access rights mean much of the countryside can be explored responsibly on foot. Find a path, see where it goes and turn around when you’ve had enough. On the coast, walk until you find somewhere sheltered to sit for a while. Distance covered: not particularly important.

Spend longer than you need to in Kirkcudbright

You could quite efficiently “do” Kirkcudbright in a morning. You could visit the galleries, see the harbour, walk past MacLellan’s Castle, have lunch and move on to the next thing. But efficiency rather misses the point. Kirkcudbright is small enough that there is little need for a plan. Walk along the harbour. Wander up St Mary Street. Look into a gallery because something in the window catches your eye. Buy a book. Stop for coffee. Have another wander.

Known as Scotland’s Artists’ Town, Kirkcudbright has galleries and historic buildings worth seeking out, but much of its appeal comes from the things between them: colourful houses, closes leading off the main streets, fishing boats in the harbour and independent shops that give you a reason to linger. If lunch turns into most of the afternoon, you’re probably doing it right.

Let the weather decide

Building an inflexible itinerary in southwest Scotland is optimistic. The weather changes. Sometimes quickly. Rather than fighting it, give it a vote. If you wake to blue skies, perhaps that is the day for the coast. If the clouds come down over the hills, go into Gatehouse of Fleet or Kirkcudbright instead. If it rains for an hour, find somewhere for coffee and wait. And if it rains for rather longer than an hour, put on a waterproof.

Some of Galloway’s landscapes are arguably at their best when conditions aren’t perfect. Woodland becomes intensely green after rain. The coast feels wilder when the wind comes in from the Solway. Low cloud moving through the hills can be far more atmospheric than another flawless blue-sky day. You don’t necessarily need to wait for the weather to improve.

Go to the beach without planning to do anything

There are beaches all along the Galloway coast, from small sheltered bays to great stretches of sand. In summer, you might swim. On a bright winter morning, you might walk for miles. But a beach doesn’t need an activity attached to it. Go down in the late afternoon. Walk along the shoreline. Look in the rock pools. Sit on a rock for ten minutes. Watch the weather coming across the Solway.

Then go home when you get cold. It is a surprisingly good way to spend an hour.

Take the slower road

There are faster ways to get around Galloway, but they are not always the most interesting. Away from the main roads, particularly the A75, a network of small lanes runs between farms, woodland and tiny villages. They’re one of the reasons this is such a rewarding part of Scotland to explore on a bike, but they’re just as enjoyable when you’re not in any particular hurry to get somewhere.

Take the road through Borgue because you’ve never been down it before. Follow the coast for a while. Stop when there is a view. Getting slightly lost is considerably less irritating when you don’t have a reservation in twenty minutes.

Don’t fill the evening

Perhaps the greatest argument for leaving some space in your day comes after dark. Galloway has some of the darkest skies in Britain. Away from the towns and villages, the difference is immediately noticeable: fewer lights on the horizon and, on a clear night, far more stars overhead than most of us are used to seeing at home.

There is a temptation to turn even this into an activity. Find the perfect stargazing location. Download an app. Identify constellations. Time your visit around an astronomical event. You can do all of those things. Or you can simply go outside and look up. Give your eyes a little time to adjust. If it’s cold, put a coat on. Stay for five minutes or stay for an hour. There isn’t really anything to complete.

Leave something for next time

A weekend isn’t long enough to see Galloway. You probably won’t walk the route you saved on your phone. You may never make it to the café somebody recommended. The beach on the other side of the peninsula will still be there when you leave. That’s fine. Travel doesn’t always have to be about fitting as much as possible into the time available. Sometimes the luxury is having enough time to change your mind.

Galloway is particularly good for that. Choose one or two places you genuinely want to see. Leave gaps between them. Take the wrong road occasionally. Stay for another coffee. Turn back from a walk because you’ve found somewhere you’d rather sit. And if you go home feeling that you didn’t quite get around to everything? Perhaps that’s a reason to come back.

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Wild Galloway is our small part of this landscape: two secluded cabins near Kirkcudbright, created around much the same idea — a quieter way to stay, with plenty of space and no particular pressure to be anywhere else.