Dumfries holiday 5-9 October 2026

Thanks to Gillian Gibbons for the following account of the holiday. Photos taken by various members are at the end of this article.

Another very successful holiday took place between the 5-9th October 2026 for 25 members, including friends from Stoke/Newcastle group, as we travelled to the Cairndale Hotel in Dumfries Scotland. On the way there on the Monday 8 of us stopped at Lochmaben, the birth place of Robert the Bruce, about 8 miles from the hotel, for a 5 mile walk, led by Martin. We walked around the loch passing by a children's play area, bowling green and tennis courts onto the Castle Loch Trail, heading through woodland to the impressive remains of Lochmaben Castle before returning to the cars to make our way into Dumfries town centre to reach our destination.

Tuesday morning was mild and calm and saw 7 of us travel to Kirkudbright for a 6 mile walk led by Charlie, while other walkers took on a longer walk elsewhere. This is a fishing port and also well known as a flourishing colony of artists and craftworkers. We headed out from the town centre walking through long wide streets of impressive housing into woodland where we continued for quite a stretch, with the River Dee leading into the Solway estuary on our right. We met some delightful pre-school children out on a nature walk looking for conkers, with a little boy saying he had found a dinosaur's footprint and that the ''winged seeds'' from the Sycamores came from a ''helicopter tree''! After a drinks break we left the woodland to cross over into a lane to walk uphill to reach a gate on our left into a steep field containing cows and calves who were too busy eating to notice us. We stopped for lunch at the very top overlooking the beautiful views in front of us, before turning into BarHills Wood, with paths leading back to town, and a visit to a cafe.

With a bright blue sky on Wednesday morning 17 members drove over to Sweetheart Abbey in New Abbey. This was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1273. We knew this was going to be a tough walk and 4 of the faster walkers in the group led by Brian set off ahead. The remaining 13 led by Derek started towards Criffel via the tiny village. It was described as a strenuous climb of 570m high (1870 ft), but because of it's prominence in the area it appears much higher ! The approach was on open ground covered in ferns and bracken with ''Christmas trees'' of all shapes and sizes all around. High up over to our right was the Waterloo Memorial, which can also be reached from New Abbey. The steep climb contained plenty of deep boggy patches of thick mud that needed extra care and helping hands to navigate through, so it was slow going. However each additional foot of climb revealed more wonderful scenery below us of a loch and then over to the Solway Firth with the sun reflecting on the water like glass. Reaching the trig point at the top for our lunch break where it was very windy, provided more views over to the Lake District and across to the Isle of Man. The return down a steep rocky path with loose shale wasn't easy either, but we did later reach fields which then led us to a track through woodland to return to the Abbey, legs feeling very tired but pleased that we had all managed the challenge.

Thursday morning was cool but bright and sunny and there were 2 different walks on offer. The longer walk for 7 members was to be even more challenging than the Wednesday's, but the other 13 on the 6.7 mile walk led by Martin was initially to Caerlaverock Nature Reserve. We passed through areas of reed beds with bullrushes, using boardwalks above the water levels. There were hides hers for bird watching and we did see rabbits and deer amongst the trees. After leaving the reserve we had a long stetch along a lane to then walk up Wardlaw Hill, a site of a hill fort, for our lunch break, From this high view point we could see Caerlaverock Castle about a mile below us, with the Solway Firth behind it in a landscape framed by the huge clear sky. Over to our right 4 miles away was Criffel and we were even more impressed with ourselves to say we had climbed that the day before ! We walked down to the castle and wandered around the outside, then taking in the remains of the original building, before re-entering the reserve to return to the cars. Another lovely warm afternoon to enjoy.

Friday was our final day, and although not everyone in the group took part in the organised walks, it was an opportunity to visit local areas of interest and enjoy the good weather. As always thanks go to the wonderful hotel staff for a comfortable stay with lovely food, and to the leaders Martin, Derek, Brian and Charlie for all their hard work in the planning, and finally to everyone that took part. Finally a big thank you to Dave Martin for organising the holiday in the first place.

A selection of photos follows. This writer (Mike) was not on the holiday and is therefore unsure which walk each photo belongs to, so they are a bit mixed up. Sorry about that.