OS Explorer map 312, Kirkcudbright & Castle Douglas: Gatehouse of Fleet – I do not own this map, and had not visited it before starting this blog. Visited for this post 20th September 2024.
Map area link. Google Maps location links: Wilnecote, Knockbrex, wedding venue, Kirkcudbright
My friend Geochunderer getting married last year netted me two new Scottish map areas. In May, I had a nice time at his stag party up in Aberfeldy, and in September, I came back up to Scotland for the wedding itself, which was near Gatehouse of Fleet in Galloway.
My previous post was about my couple of months’ career break in September and October 2024, and the wedding was right in the middle of this – I was actually travelling in Norway just before the wedding. My friends Joystick and Cabbage were driving up from Northamptonshire the day before the wedding, a Friday, but I didn’t confirm whether I’d be joining them for the drive until the last minute, because during my travels I’d been keeping things flexible, not deciding where to go or booking anything until a day or two in advance – so there was some chance I’d find too many nice things to do and want to stay in Norway until the last minute, coming directly to Scotland from there. In the end, though, I came home on the Wednesday evening, so had Thursday to relax, and could join my friends for their drive!
I identified Wilnecote station, near Tamworth and just north of Birmingham, as a good station to meet those two – just one change of train from my home station in Moreton-in-Marsh, and just off the M6 for their drive up north – so up I headed on the train mid-morning on Friday.
Now, in much more notable news than me having just got back from Norway a couple of days before, Cabbage and his wife had actually just had their first child 5 weeks before. For him to come to the wedding, his wife and daughter would be staying with his parents-in-law, and this was both the first time Cabbage had spent a night away from his family since the birth, and their first time travelling with the baby. Since he was dropping his family off that morning, there was a little uncertainty over how soon he and Joystick would start driving up to Scotland, and I got to Wilnecote for the earliest plausble time. It looked like I’d have a couple of hours to wait, so I went into a café opposite the station and sat down for a light lunch of some beans on toast, and did a bit of blogging on my laptop. The beans on toast were only £4.50, which was very reasonable – nice to be back in the Midlands! It dawned on me while I was in the café that it was actually attached to a soft play area, so gradually filled up with parents of small children, and I was a little out of place – and hopefully I didn’t look too creepy. Oh well!
Cabbage and Joystick soon arrived, and we had a jolly drive up to Galloway over the rest of the afternoon and evening, arriving about 8pm. We had an early dinner / late lunch in a service station near Wigan – for me, a veg samosa and mango chunks from the M&S and some onion rings and cheesy chips from the Burger King. On the drive, we had fun doing some Sporcle geography quizzes, and listening to me read out the first couple of posts in the excellent ACOUP blog series analaysing the Siege of Gondor in the Lord of the Rings films/books from a military history and logistics perspective.
After a Tesco stop in Castle Douglas to pick up some things for breakfasts, we got to our accommodation at about 9pm. This was a little Airbnb house in the hamlet of Knockbrex, which turned out to be a wooden bothy right next to a castle, which was rather cool – though the “C19th/20th country house with turrets” kind of castle rather than a defensive structure.
Climbing Programmer was the fourth one who’d be staying with us – along with Geochunderer (the groom), this makes up our group of five who were friends at school together and have featured on this blog plenty of times, e.g. here and the Previous Visits section here. He was supposed to join us at a similar time, driving over from his home in Edinburgh, but had made the unfortunate discovery earlier that day that his suit, which he needed to wear for the wedding, hade gone mouldy. It was, fortunately, machine-washable, so he washed it, but then it got stuck in the washing machine, and then when they finally got it out it needed time to dry. Because of this, he’d be arriving very late that night, so we sent him some instructions on how to get in, and went to bed!
One solid thing I always enjoy about Scotland is the availability of veggie haggis and veggie black pudding in supermarkets. I’d taken advantage of the latter in our Tesco stop, and the next morning, was able to join the others in their sausage and black pudding rolls for breakfast. With Climbing Programmer still in bed (having arrived in the early hours), the other three of us went for a short walk around, heading down a lane to a nearby beach.
I really liked the beach! To get to the sandy bit by the water, we had to either navigate a very slippy, seaweedy area of flat pebbles – which we did on the way down – or climb over some higher, rather jagged-looking rocks, as we did on the return.
Returning to the house, Climbing Programmer was at last conscious, so we did a bit of catching up, then got ourselves ready, had a little photoshoot, and headed off to the wedding!
The other three had gone for suits in very similar shades of blue, while I had my cream linen suit – since I often get hot at weddings – which did give a bit of an odd-one-out picture!
The wedding was very nice! It was a very pretty venue just outside Gatehouse of Fleet, overlooking the sea, with the Galloway hills rising behind it; the indoor spaces were spacious and pretty. The weather was great; sunny but cool. It was just a really nice day! It was nice knowing a good number of the faces from the stag party, and meeting Geochunderer’s parents for first time about ten years. And just good seeing my friend happy of course! There was, as expected for a Scottish wedding, a cèilidh, which I always enjoy – unlike free dancing, which I’ve never really got the hang of enjoying.
We stayed until the end, leaving a little after midnight, and headed back to our accommodation. Climbing Programmer decided, despite it being about 1am by that point, to pack up and drive home to Edinburgh that night rather than after a sleep, so off he went.
On Sunday, it was time to drive back home, but we had time for one little exploring stop first, so after packing up and leaving the house at about 10am, we headed over to the nearby town of Kirkcudbright to look around.
It was very quiet in the town on a Sunday morning. We parked up, and walked around for half an hour or so, seeing the harbour, the ruined castle – closed, unfortunately – and various streets and green spaces. The castle, for some reason, had a slightly creepy Rapunzel head in one of the windows made a little artlessly of a shop mannequin. It was also, we found, the second day of the Kirkcudbright Kite Festival, though it seemed nothing was happening yet at 10:30am.
I liked Kirkcudbright! There were some nice, pretty streets with colourful houses, and a lot of interesting little shops; it’d be nice to come back sometime when they’re open!
Just before returning to the car, we finally found out where everyone was – there was a market on by the church, which was nicely busy! We had a walk around, Cabbage fulfilling one of his classic holiday habits by buying a few chutneys, and I getting a couple of nice-looking pies to take home for dinner.
And that was it! We got back in the car, drove south, and Cabbage and Joystick dropped me back at Wilnecote for my train home. One unfortunate interlude was that, stopping in the WIlnecote McDonalds to use the toilet, I unthinkingly put my things on the floor, but the pies I’d bought were just sitting loose in a paper bag, which got soaked through with some toilet-floor liquid which I definitely didn’t want to be eating, so I had to bin them.
Possibly urine-soaked pies aside, a really nice weekend, and I’m glad I got to go to Geochunderer’s wedding!
Visiting all the maps! 