During the days we went exploring the Dumfries and Galloway area, driving around the park, visiting the nearby towns, and taking in some culture afforded by the historical buildings we happened upon: Cardoness Castle, Threave Castle, Caerlaverock Castle, and Dundrennan Abbey. We had no direct plans and just drove where the roads took us or where we noticed signs of interest which also led to us heading down single track roads and finding ourselves with occasionally gorgeous photo opportunities of the Galloway countryside and lakes.

Unlike Threave Castle in the vicinity there was no need to make use of a boatman to get us across to the castle’s interior this time as the moat was fairly narrow and easily crossed by a small bridge. The ruins of the inside of Caerlaverock Castle were not so all-encompassing as to prevent plenty of wandering around, up, and on.

Outside the castle were a few siege weapons. Caerlaverock had been besieged a number of times in its past and reenactments are a regular occurrence at the Scottish castle. I’m always partial to a nice trebuchet although the one we saw was pretty small.

There wasn’t a huge amount to see as the ruins of Threave Castle itself are quite small although its location and views were pretty good even under not the prettiest of skies.

The main thing for us, though, was that Threave Castle was on an island. We’d guessed there would be a bridge to it but we soon discovered it could only be reached by boat. As a fun element to the visit the boatman would only come to ferry you across when you rang a bell so we duly did that before our trip to the castle’s keep. After we’d returned to the mainland and explored the garden areas for a bit we passed the pontoon to get across to the island again and saw a group of people standing there, waiting, looking across the water to the boatman who was simply looking back. They hadn’t realised the bell needed ringing. Luckily for them my wife walked down, struck the bell, and we wandered off as we heard the boat finally start up and head towards the sheepish-looking visitors.

Dundrennan Abbey was a Cistercian abbey, now ruins, though with some well-preserved details. For its part in history it was the place in which Mary, Queen of Scots spent her last night in Scotland in 1568 before she headed to England and was captured.

When we arrived at the abbey we saw a few other cars present and some people heading through the entrance as it had just opened. We approached the entrance and spotted a sign that indicated we should turn left to buy tickets for entry but we were confused as nobody else was. Nevertheless, we obeyed the sign and headed down to a hut, entered, and asked for tickets. The man inside was shocked and remarked that most people ignored the sign and that it was nice to have someone pay for a change. We laughed about it and explored the ruins, noticing that the people who’d not paid were universally older and all Scottish. Some comment about stereotypical tightness might have slipped our lips.

Cardoness Castle was an abandoned tower house, originally built in the 15th century, and now cared for as a protected monument. On the day we visited we were the only people there and the only other car in the car park was, we think, the ticketing staff member’s. There was quite a hike up to the top of the tower and we’re not fit people but we’ve never refused a tower climbing challenge yet.