EV83

Back in the early days of LockDown I did a series of blog posts based on desk-based exploration of some of the sheets pulled at random from my collection of OS Landranger sheets - all part of planning what I was going to do After LockDown. 

That little bit of virtual exploration included 10 sheets from Shetland down to the Borders and to Dumfries and Galloway.  At the time I promised to do a further set of sheets but got otherwise distracted.

So, resuming where I left off - Series Two - OS Landranger Sheet 83 - Newton Stewart & Kirkcudbright.

This is one of the sheets I know fairly well.  It covers the area between the Galloway Forest, and the Galloway coast - mostly Wigtown Bay.

The main road across the sheet from west to east is the A75 - linking Stranraer (and the boats to Northern Ireland) and Castle Douglas (just off the eastern edge of the sheet).  I've driven (or more accurately, been driven) across this sheet more times that I can remember - travelling between my childhood home just outside Belfast and a grand-parental home in the Scottish Borders (on OS Landranger Sheet 79).

I can see there are also fragments of disused railway line at various places on the map - but I suspect these were Beeching casualties - and that they were also long gone when I was using British Rail to get to Stranraer in my student days.

These visits both by car and (potentially) by train were long long ago - however I have had one real (as opposed to virtual) visit to the area in more recent years. 

Three landmarks I picked out for that visit were

(i) Threave Castle. On Threave Island in the middle of the River Dee and one-time home of the 'Black Douglases'. I've got lots Douglas connections in my family tree but haven't yet been able to claim a direct link!

Threave Castle

(ii) Isle of Whithorn.  Which isn't currently an isle at all - but once was an important pilgrimage site.

St Ninians Chapel, Isle of Whithorn

(iii) Ross. Aside from natural curiosity, I think I mostly went here so I could hear my sat nav announcing "Ross. You've arrived in Ross." as I arrived in Ross.  Around the time I was visiting (in 2017) the nearby island of Little Ross was on the market - complete with lighthouse and a macabre history.  We decided not to put in an offer. 

Ross Bay

And for the next visit?  Like a lot of this coastline there are a huge number of little bays and inlets to explore - and I think a bit more time to do just that would be good.  The other place that would deserve a visit is Wigtown  - known for the abundance of second-hand bookshops, and for the annual Book Festival.

And from the southwest corner of Scotland - the next step (in real life requiring quite a lot of road miles, and then an overnight ferry then at least one more ferry after that) is to Sheet 1 (Shetland: Yell, Unst & Fetlar).