Written by fourleggedbreaks| 10 December 2022 in Scotland
If you’ve not yet visited this corner of Scotland, you’re going to love it… and if you have then we probably don’t need to remind you how beautiful the area is!
Home to acres of forests, a long and varied coastline, fascinating museums, lush gardens and many local food and craft producers, Dumfries & Galloway, in the South West corner of Scotland, offers plenty of things to see and do.
It’s the perfect place for a break away with your four-legged friends and we have a great range of dog-friendly holiday homes for you to choose from – take a look here.
Here are some personal recommendations from Sarah – a Four Legged Break’s customer who has visited the area twice so far with her husband and their Jack Russell…
The first time we visited Dumfries and Galloway was a few years ago when we stayed in a cute little dog-friendly cottage with lovely views and a log burner. We chose a cottage near the coast with some great beaches within easy reach.
One of my highlights was the village of Isle of Whithorn – a small harbour village with lots of character and history. We enjoyed the sea views and found a brilliant pub with a dog-friendly beer garden and great food – one of many on this relaxing break away!
A little way inland is the enormous Galloway Forest Park which has lots of walking and cycling trails to explore. The Forest and the surrounding area is a haven for wildlife, including the famous red kites. We followed part of the Galloway Red Kite trail and found it to be a great way to explore scenic inland area of Galloway. A visit to the official feeding station gave us chance to see this spectacular bird of prey up-close – a great photo opportunity!
We also visited some bustling little towns and villages that would all be a great base for a self-catering holiday, including Newton Stewart, Kirkcudbright, Stranraer, Port Logan, Portpatrick and Gatehouse of Fleet. If you’re a book worm like me, Wigtown is definitely worth a visit as it’s Scotland’s official National Book Town and lives up to the title with plenty of book shops.
A few years later we returned to Ayrshire, Dumfries & Galloway, this time with my parents and sister to celebrate a special birthday. We all stayed together in a gorgeous dog-friendly holiday home with plenty of space for everyone including a fantastic kitchen and a private hot tub in the garden!
We enjoyed lots of lovely walks with the dog, including my favourite along the coast from Rockcliffe to Kippford, and back through the woodland which was full of wildflowers – the scenery and views were really special.
The foodies among us enjoyed visiting Castle Douglas, which is a designated Food Town home to a number of local independent food and drink producers – ideal for shopping for groceries to prepare meals back at our holiday accommodation – as well as a large choice of cafes, pubs and restaurants.
In my opinion, no holiday would be complete without at least one ice-cream(!), and in Dumfries & Galloway you can’t go wrong with a visit to the impressive Cream o’ Galloway visitor centre where you can sample a wide range of homemade dairy ice-cream. There’s also a play area for kids as well as a number of dog-friendly nature trails, which we enjoyed exploring.
I’m sure we’ll be back to Dumfries and Galloway again for another dog-friendly holiday before too long!
If you fancy exploring this region yourself, take a look at our range of dog-friendly holiday cottages in Dumfries & Galloway.
Check out our other Blog posts here for more recommendations, advice and special offers for your next dog-friendly holiday.