Andy Murray finds some unexpected pleasures on a visit to Galloway.
AS THE Galloway peaks struggled out of the mist, a hundred thousand
starlings kaleidoscoped around the sky like iron filings on a drum-skin.
A heron winged its way gracefully across my line of vision and I
wondered whether Thomas Carlyle had had nature in mind when he told
Queen Victoria that the road from Creetown to Gatehouse of Fleet was the
loveliest in her kingdom, and the way back a close second.
Carlyle gave his opinion before lorries trundled along the arterial
A75 on their way to the Stranraer ferry, before a great part of the area
became blanketed in Sitka spruce and besieged by low-flying aircraft.
Galloway, nonetheless, still holds its own.
Scotland's surprising south-west, as the authorities call it, embraces
a few decent-sized hills, Corbetts if not Munros. The brochures call
them the southern Highlands and they call the serrated southern
coastline ''the Scottish Riviera''.
The Machars peninsula has been virtually by-passed by the twentieth
century. With narrow, twisting lanes passing for roads and two cars
constituting a traffic jam it is Nirvana to the cyclist and a pleasant
detour away from the Southern Upland Way for walkers. The peninsula is
dotted with abbeys, standing stones, monuments, crosses and ruined
churches, and the only hills are drumlins: gorse-clad bumps in the
pastureland, courtesy of the Ice Age.
The burgh of Whithorn has a high profile these days as the site of one
of western Europe's most important excavations. It earns its title of
''the cradle of Christianity'' from having been the location of
Scotland's first church, founded by St. Ninian, who converted the
southern Picts from Whithorn long before Columba had reached Iona.
Many monarchs, including Robert the Bruce, Mary, Queen of Scots, and
James IV visited the shrine of St. Ninian, but pilgrimages were outlawed
by the Reformation and Whithorn fell from grace; the coming of the
railways last century shunted the Machars further into the sidelines.
''You can see five kingdoms from here. Scotland, where we're standing,
England over there, the Isle of Man, Ireland -- and the Kingdom of
Heaven up there,'' said the Reverend Andrew Paterson, as we walked near
Burrow Head, where the actor Edward Woodward was burned at the stake in
the movie The Wicker Man.
The Rhins of Galloway, another remote peninsula, also contributes to
the reputation of ''Bonnie Galloway''. As the drone of the fog-horn from
a distant ferry drowned out the tranquillising tunes of the seagulls, I
spared a thought for the 133 ill-fated passengers of the Princess
Victoria which had sunk in the loch during a ferocious storm en route to
Larne in 1953.
NEAR Corsewall lighthouse on the gnarled headland the haar clung to
the fields, and another horn dispelled any hopes of our picking out the
Irish coast way out west. The secluded Knocknassie Hotel was shut, too
-- which was a pity, since I had gone there to see some of the fittings.
The hotel managed to procure the shower-room, admiral's cloakrooms and
other pieces of the Ark Royal, scrapped at Cairnryan after a
distinguished career.
Despite the fog and the cruel seas, this is the mildest area of
Scotland, owing to the beneficial influence of the Gulf Stream. Logan
Botanic Gardens near Port Logan boast glasshouse-free palm trees and
other plants more common in the southern hemisphere. Two kilometres west
is the wave-beaten coast of the Irish Sea, while placid Luce Bay lies
the same distance to the east.
The Mull of Galloway, Scotland's own ''Land's End'', is crowned by
another Stevenson lighthouse. It shares a latitude with Hartlepool, but
it lacks the kudos of Scotland's other pole, John O'Groats. The Mull has
seen its tragedies -- and not just shipwrecks. According to an ancient
ballad, a noted brewer by the name of Trost of the Long Knife threw
himself and his son off the cliffs there rather than surrender his
recipe to aggressive rivals.
One of Galloway's newest tourist attractions is the Mill on the Fleet
at Gatehouse of Fleet, where you can view Galloway's industrial,
cultural and environmental heritage through state-of-the-art
audio-visual displays and exhibitions.
At Little Wheels at the coastal village of Portpatrick visitors can
relive their childhood or wallow in nostalgia watching one of 16 model
trains swishing round a three-tier landscaped track.
Another Galloway oddity is the gem rock museum at Creetown, which has
a huge collection of minerals and gemstones amassed over 50 years.
* The former home of the Earls of Galloway, the Creebridge House Hotel
near Newton Stewart (Scottish Tourist Board Four Crowns Commended), is
recommended for its comfortable accommodation and cuisine. 0671 2121.
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