Walk out to the lighthouse at the southern tip of Scotland

Look for guillemots and razorbills on the cliffs of the RSPB reserve

Pick out Ireland, the Isle of Man and Cumbria from the headland on a clear day

The Mull of Galloway is the southernmost point of Scotland, a headland of cliffs with an RSPB reserve on top and Robert Stevenson's lighthouse of 1830 standing 26m above it. On a clear day the view takes in Ireland, the Isle of Man and the hills of Cumbria.

The Mull of Galloway: Scotland's Southernmost Point

Portpatrick and the Mull of Galloway

Cairnryan

Six nights in a loop from Cairnryan: the Mull of Galloway, Kirkcudbright's painters and Threave's island castle, Wigtown's books and the Galloway Forest's dark skies, then Culzean and Burns's Alloway.

Galloway and the Ayrshire Coast from Cairnryan

New England Bay and the Rhins of Galloway

Gemma and Campbell

Follow in the footsteps of Gemma and Campbell on the part of the SW300 they know best: nine nights down the Rhins of Galloway, up to Culzean on the Ayrshire coast, then inland to Loch Doon and the Galloway Forest.

The SW300: The Rhins of Galloway, Culzean and the Galloway Forest

Start at Portpatrick, the western end of the Southern Upland Way, the 214-mile route to Cockburnspath opened in 1984 as the UK's first officially recognised coast-to-coast walk

Walk the first stage from Portpatrick to Castle Kennedy

The Southern Upland Way starts at Portpatrick and runs 214 miles coast to coast to Cockburnspath. Its first stage climbs off the harbour along the cliffs and turns inland to Castle Kennedy, where two castles stand in gardens laid out between a pair of lochs.

Southern Upland Way: Portpatrick and Castle Kennedy

Attend at least three events at the Wigtown Book Festival, which began in 1999 and is the second largest in Scotland

Browse The Bookshop, Scotland's largest second-hand bookshop with about 100,000 volumes, in Scotland's National Book Town

See the Wigtown Martyrs' Monument and the site where Margaret McLachlan and Margaret Wilson were drowned by the incoming tide in 1685

Wigtown is Scotland's National Book Town, and its book festival, first held in 1999, runs for ten days every autumn and is the second largest in Scotland. The Bookshop holds about 100,000 volumes, the largest second-hand stock in Scotland. The Wigtown Martyrs' Monument remembers Margaret McLachlan and Margaret Wilson, drowned by the incoming tide in 1685, and Bladnoch Distillery is just outside the town.

Wigtown: Scotland's National Book Town

Visit Point of Ayre Lighthouse, the northern tip of the island, built in 1818 to a design by Robert Stevenson

See Maughold Head Lighthouse on the island's east coast, built in 1914

See Chicken Rock lighthouse from the Calf of Man, the 1875 tower on the rock off the island's southwest

Visit Langness Lighthouse on the Langness peninsula near Castletown, built in 1880

Four lights mark the corners of the island, and the oldest of them is the Point of Ayre at the northern tip, built in 1818 to a design by Robert Stevenson. Maughold Head on the east coast followed in 1914, Langness near Castletown in 1880, and Chicken Rock, the tower on the bare rock off the south-west, in 1875 — which is best seen from the cliffs of the Calf of Man opposite.

The Manx Lighthouses: Stevenson at the Point of Ayre

Visit Tynwald Hill at St John's, where on 5 July each year the Tynwald proclaims the year's laws in Manx and English; the institution claims to be the world's oldest continuous legislature

Explore Peel Castle on St Patrick's Isle, begun in the 11th century under King Magnus Barefoot, with its round tower and St German's Cathedral

See the finds from the 10th-century Viking burial known as the Pagan Lady, uncovered on St Patrick's Isle

Visit the House of Manannan in Peel, the museum of Celtic and Norse Mann

Tynwald claims to be the oldest continuous legislature in the world, founded by tradition in 979 and on the documentary evidence by the 13th century — younger only than Iceland's Althing. Every year on Tynwald Day, usually 5 July, it leaves its chamber in Douglas and meets in the open air on the stepped mound of Tynwald Hill at St John's to proclaim the year's new laws aloud in Manx and in English. The Norse story of the island runs on from there to Peel Castle and the Pagan Lady burial.

Tynwald Hill: The Oldest Parliament Still Sitting

Ride the graded trails from the Kirroughtree visitor centre

Look for red squirrels in the forest around the centre

Kirroughtree, in the forest above Newton Stewart, is one of the seven 7stanes mountain-bike centres in southern Scotland, with graded trails through a forest that holds red squirrels, red deer and ospreys and looks out towards the Irish Sea.

Kirroughtree: Granite Singletrack Above the Cree

Walk Glen Helen and see the Rhenass Falls

Walk Glen Wyllin near Kirk Michael, from the glen to the coast

Ride the Groudle Glen Railway, the 2ft-gauge steam line opened in 1896, in Groudle Glen

The island's glens are steep wooded clefts running down to the sea, and several are kept as public walks. Glen Helen has the Rhenass Falls at the top of it, Glen Maye drops to a waterfall and then the shore, and Glen Wyllin runs from Kirk Michael straight down to the beach. In Groudle Glen a two-foot-gauge steam line opened in 1896 still runs out along the cliff.

The Manx Glens: Rhenass Falls and the Groudle Glen Railway

Watch for bottlenose dolphins from Chanonry Point on a rising tide

See Stevenson's lighthouse of 1846 at the point

Visit Hugh Miller's birthplace cottage in Cromarty

Chanonry Point runs out into the Moray Firth on a spit between Fortrose and Rosemarkie, and is one of the best places in the UK to watch bottlenose dolphins from the shore, especially on an incoming tide when they fish the current. Alan Stevenson's lighthouse at the tip was first lit in 1846. Along the coast at Cromarty, the geologist Hugh Miller was born on 10 October 1802, and his birthplace cottage is kept as a museum.