We arrived at the Garlieston site in beautiful sunshine; the sea was bright blue and the site and village couldn’t have looked prettier. Our pitch was not directly at the harbour’s edge but we could still catch glimpses of the water and boats from our van and awning.

This was our first trip to Galloway and we made the journey so that we could visit Wigtown (Scotland’s Book Town), which is just a few miles north of Garlieston. We spent a full day browsing the many bookshops in the town. Most of the bookshops sell second-hand books but some also have new stock. Our dog was welcome in a number of the shops and cafes which made our visit so much easier. Also nearby is Kircudbright, which has been designated an “Artists’ Town” with many art and craft galleries to visit.

On another day we enjoyed a trip to the Isle of Whithorn where we visited the harbour, the tower and the ruins of St Ninian’s chapel. Then we moved further along the coast to St Ninian’s cave. The half-hour walk from the car park to the cave takes you through a wooded valley to a pebbled beach where the cave is found in the cliffs overlooking the bay. We were glad we’d followed the advice we’d found online to wear stout footwear – the path is muddy through the woods and the beach is rocky with large pebbles.

We took a trip west towards Stranraer to visit Castle Kennedy Gardens. We explored the large gardens following the waymarked trails. Afterwards we visited Portpatrick on the west coast of the Rhinns of Galloway. It has an attractive harbour, beach and rocky cliffs from which you can look across to Northern Ireland.

During our stay, we took a number of walks from the site along the edge of the bay round to Galloway House Gardens and also in the opposite direction past Garlieston beach and north around the bay. Our dog loved running on the beach at low tide.

We will come back to Garlieston because there is plenty more to do in the area that we didn’t have time for this time, particularly exploring north into the Galloway Forest Park.