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

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

Stargaze in Galloway Forest Park, which in November 2009 became the first area in the UK designated a Dark Sky Park, 774 square kilometres of forest and hill

Climb the Merrick (843m), the highest hill in the Southern Uplands

Look for the wild goats at the Wild Goat Park on the Queen's Way (A712) between Newton Stewart and New Galloway

Walk to Bruce's Stone above Loch Trool, marking Robert the Bruce's 1307 victory

In November 2009 Galloway Forest Park became the first area in the UK designated a Dark Sky Park. Under those skies the Merrick rises to 843m, the highest hill in the Southern Uplands, wild goats graze beside the Queen's Way and Bruce's Stone above Loch Trool marks Robert the Bruce's victory of 1307.

Galloway Forest Park: The UK's First Dark Sky Park

Follow the Galloway Kite Trail through New Galloway and Crossmichael, watching for red kites over Loch Ken

Pick out a red kite by its wingspan of 175–195cm and the forked tail that twists as the bird turns

Walk or cycle the Loch Ken shore and watch for kites over the water

Red kites have been brought back to Galloway, and the Galloway Kite Trail runs through the villages round Loch Ken, among them New Galloway and Crossmichael, past the farms and forestry where they now breed; they can be seen at all times of the year. Loch Ken is 9 miles long, and its marshes with the River Dee's are a Ramsar wetland.

The Galloway Kite Trail: Red Kites Over Loch Ken

Visit the Kirkcudbright Galleries, in the former town hall, opened on 12 July 2018 in 'the Artists' Town' where the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists settled from the 1880s

Tour Broughton House, where the painter E. A. Hornel lived from 1901 until his death in 1933

See MacLellan's Castle, the roofless tower house of 1582 in the middle of the town

Walk the harbour and the colour-washed streets the painters came for

Kirkcudbright drew painters from the 1880s — E. A. Hornel of the Glasgow Boys lived at Broughton House on the High Street from 1901 until his death in 1933, and Jessie M. King and others followed. Kirkcudbright Galleries opened in the old town hall in July 2018 to show the town's art collection, and MacLellan's Castle of 1582 stands roofless in the middle of the town.

Kirkcudbright: The Artists' Town

Walk the full circuit of the curtain wall and count its sides — eleven of them, a footprint cut to fit an island that is no longer there

Look out across the water and work out what happened here: the loch was raised in the 1930s for a hydro-electric scheme, the island went under, and the walls were taken down and rebuilt on this shore

Put the sieges to the stone you are standing in. The castle was held by the English in the Wars of Independence until the forces of Robert I took it back, besieged again in 1335, and attacked in 1446 by William Douglas, eighth Earl of Douglas

Walk down to the waterline below the walls and look along the length of Loch Doon, then back up at the castle — the two views the island site would have had, now split between the shore and the water

Loch Doon Castle was built in the late 13th century on an island in the loch, inside an eleven-sided curtain wall shaped to the rock it stood on. In the 1930s the loch was raised for a hydro-electric scheme, so the castle was dismantled and rebuilt on the shore, where it stands today as a scheduled monument. It had a hard history before that: held by the English in the Wars of Independence until Robert I’s forces recovered it, besieged in 1335, and attacked again in 1446 by the eighth Earl of Douglas.

Loch Doon Castle: The Fortress That Was Moved

Ring the bell and take the boat to Threave Castle

Go inside the tower as far as the Great Hall, reopened in August 2026 while conservation work continues

Walk the Threave garden and the walled garden

Look for ospreys and wildfowl on the Dee marshes

Archibald the Grim built Threave on an island in the Dee in the 1370s, and the Black Douglases held it, for a time under Princess Margaret, daughter of Robert III, until James II overthrew them and took the castle in 1455. You reach it by ringing a bell for the boatman. The Threave estate nearby has a garden run as the National Trust for Scotland's school of gardening and an osprey nest watched from a viewing platform between March and September.

Threave: The Black Douglas Tower on Its Island

Walk the great hall and courtyard of Linlithgow Palace

See St Michael's Church immediately south of the palace, rebuilt from the 1420s alongside it

Walk the walls of Blackness Castle out over the Forth

Walk the loch shore path around Linlithgow Peel

Mary, Queen of Scots was born at Linlithgow Palace in December 1542, and her father James V had been born there in April 1512; the palace stands roofless above its loch with a courtyard fountain at its centre. Four miles north-east on the Forth, Blackness Castle was built in the 1440s by Sir George Crichton, passed to the crown in 1453, served as a state prison, and is known from its long narrow shape as 'the ship that never sailed'.

Linlithgow and Blackness: A Queen's Birthplace and the Ship That Never Sailed

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.