Galloway and the Ayrshire Coast from Cairnryan

Editor's note

One night at Portpatrick, the western end of the Southern Upland Way, which runs 214 miles coast to coast to Cockburnspath. Walk its first stage off the harbour and along the cliffs, then inland to Castle Kennedy, where two castles stand in gardens between a pair of lochs. At the Mull of Galloway, Scotland's southernmost point, walk out to Robert Stevenson's lighthouse of 1830 and look for guillemots and razorbills on the cliffs of the RSPB reserve. On a clear day, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the hills of Cumbria are all in view.

Editor's note

One night in Kirkcudbright, the town painters came to from the 1880s. Tour Broughton House on the High Street, E. A. Hornel's home from 1901 until his death in 1933, and see the collection at the Kirkcudbright Galleries in the old town hall. Walk into the roofless MacLellan's Castle of 1582 and round the harbour's colour-washed streets. At Threave, ring the bell for the boatman to cross to Archibald the Grim's tower on its island in the Dee, and climb its five storeys. The Threave estate has a walled garden and an osprey nest watched from a hide.

Editor's note

Two nights at Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town. The Bookshop holds about 100,000 volumes, the largest second-hand stock in Scotland, and the book festival runs for ten days at the end of September and start of October. The Martyrs' Monument remembers Margaret McLachlan and Margaret Wilson, drowned by the tide in 1685. Galloway Forest Park became the UK's first Dark Sky Park in 2009, and its darkest skies come with the long nights from October to March. By day, climb the Merrick, 843m, see the wild goats at Clatteringshaws or walk to Bruce's Stone above Loch Trool.

Editor's note

Two final nights between Culzean and Alloway before the crossing home. Robert Adam remodelled Culzean Castle for the 10th Earl of Cassillis between 1777 and 1792; tour it for the oval staircase and the top-floor apartment given to General Eisenhower in 1945, then walk the walled garden and the clifftop paths, looking out to Ailsa Craig. In Alloway, see the cottage where Robert Burns was born in 1759 and the Birthplace Museum's more than 5,000 artefacts, including original manuscripts. Cross the Brig o' Doon, where Tam o' Shanter ends, beside Alloway Auld Kirk.