Our easy-to-use website contains details and locations of places to visit around this area. Please select from:

	Places to Stay: Bed and Breakfast Hotels and Guest Houses Pubs with Accommodation Self Catering
	Places to Eat and Drink: Cafes, Coffee & Tea Shops Pubs serving Food Restaurants and Bistros
	Places of Interest: Places to Visit
	Gardens Centres: Garden Centres/Nurseries
	Specialist Shops: Antiques & Restoration Arts and Crafts Fashions Gifts Home and Garden Jewellery Food and Drink Shops

Dumfries

The Royal Burgh of Dumfries certainly lives up to its nickname of the “Queen of the South”. It has a lovely location on the banks of the River Nith, and was once voted the town with the best quality of life in Britain.

The town is forever associated with Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. Though born in Ayrshire, he moved to the town in 1791 to take up the improbable post of Excise Officer in charge of tobacco duties. At first, Burns lodged in a house in Bank Street, at that time a noisome alley leading down to the river which he nicknamed “Stinking Vennel”, vennel being the Scots word for alley. He later moved to a more salubrious dwelling in Mill Street on the edge of town. He lived here from 1793 until his death from rheumatic heart disease in 1796 at the early age of 37. The building is now open to the public as Burns’ House.  Although not a grand house, it was nonetheless a substantial building for its day, showing that by the end of his life Burns had achieved some form of financial stability due to his work as an exciseman. On display are letters and manuscripts, the pistol he carried with him on his rounds and the chair in which he sat when he wrote his last poems.

Burns was buried in a simple grave in the churchyard of nearby St Michael’s Church, a Georgian building only a few years older than himself. Twenty years later, his body was exhumed and re-interred in a splendid, columned Burns Mausoleum which also contains a finely-executed statue of Scotland’s national bard communing with the Muse of Poetry. Also buried here are his wife, Jean Armour, and five of their family.

Another statue was erected to his memory in the Market Square, now also re-named as Burns Statue Square. This statue is a sentimental Victorian presentation of the roisterer and libertine as a clean-cut young fellow, clutching a posy of flowers in one hand and with a faithful canine curled around his feet.

A more authentic image of the partying poet is conjured up at the Globe Inn in the High Street. This down-to-earth hostelry first opened its doors in 1610 and was one of Burns’ most favoured drinking dens, or “howffs” as they were called. His preferred armchair is still in place but before settling down in it, be warned that anyone who does can be called upon to buy a round of drinks for everyone present.

The most comprehensive record of Burns’ five year residence in the town can be found at the Robert Burns Centre (free). Located on the west bank of the Nith and housed in an old water mill, it tells the full story of the poet and his connections with the town. There is a fascinating scale model of Dumfries in the 1790s and a haunting audio- visual presentation (for which there is a small charge), as well as a bookshop and a café-gallery with a lively exhibition programme.

Another writer associated with Dumfries is JM Barrie. Though not born here, he attended Dumfries Academy, a handsome building in Academy Street. While at the school, he stayed in a house in George Street and later admitted that the games of pirates he and his friends played in the garden sloping down to the Nith gave him the idea for Peter Pan and Captain Hook.

Dumfries boasts many handsome 18th century buildings. One of the most interesting is Midsteeple which dominates the High Street and was erected in 1707 as town hall, courthouse and prison. On its southern wall is a carving of an ell, an old Scots cloth measurement of about 37 inches. There is also a table of distances from Dumfries to various important Scottish towns. One of the towns however, is in England - Huntingdon. Three successive Scottish kings in medieval times held the earldom of Huntingdon, and it was one of the places where Scottish drovers took cattle to market in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In Shakespeare Street stands, rather appropriately, the famous Theatre Royal, the oldest working theatre in Scotland, dating from 1792. Burns regularly attended performances here. In contrast, Dumfries’s newest attraction is Organised Chaos on Lockerbie Road. This activity centre has a paint ball arena and a purpose-built, all terrain 800 metre track for off-road buggies.

Dumfries proper sits on the east bank of the Nith. On the west, up until it was amalgamated into Dumfries in 1929, was the separate burgh of Maxwelltown, which was in Kirkcudbrightshire. Joining the two towns is Devorgilla’s Bridge. Though the present bridge dates from 1431, the original structure was built by Devorgilla, Lady of Galloway, in the 13th century. Her poignant story of deep love and grievous loss is recounted later in this chapter under the entry for New Abbey.

At the Maxwellton end of the bridge is the Old Bridge House Museum, with exhibits and displays illustrating everyday life in the town. The museum building dates from 1660, and is built into the structure of the bridge. Also on the Maxwellton side of the river is Dumfries Museum, housed in an 18th century windmill, and with a Camera Obscura that gives fascinating views of the town.

On the northern outskirts of the town, but now surrounded by modern housing, are the beautiful red sandstone remains of Lincluden College (Historic Scotland). Built originally in 1164 as a Benedictine nunnery by Uchtred, Lord of Galloway, it was suppressed in the late 14th century by Archibald the Grim, third Earl of Douglas, and replaced by a collegiate church. The present ruins date from that time. One of its main features is the elaborate canopied tomb of Princess Margaret, daughter of Robert III.

Two miles out of town, the cathedral-style Crichton Memorial Church was designed by Sydney Mitchell and built between 1890-1897 as part of a mental hospital. It has an ornate oak roof, a striking floor of Irish and Sicilian marble, some impressive stained glass and a magnificent organ with richly carved screens.

For those interested in genealogy, the Dumfries and Galloway Family History Research Centre in Glasgow Street must be visited. There are archives, fiches and books about local history and families, though there is a modest fee for the use of the facilities.

To the east of Dumfries at Heathhall is the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum, run by a group of amateur enthusiasts. It has three floors of displays in what was the control tower of the old airfield of RAF Tinwald Downs. It holds a fascinating collection of military aircraft, both propeller and jet driven, as well as engines, memorabilia and photographs.