Galloway Activity Centre

Most folk who visit Galloway Activity Centre find more than enough to do on site, but if you do decide to explore the area you’ll be on a winning streak whether you stick close to home or get into the car for a drive around Dumfries to visit award-winning gardens, National Trust Scotland sites, championship golf courses or the many nature reserves and wildlife havens: Dumfries and Galloway has a famed Red Kite Trail, red squirrel sanctuaries and seabirds by the thousands at the Mull of Galloway. The activity centre is right on the edge of the Galloway Forest National Park, where you can take a break from all the activity by gazing upwards: the park was the first Dark Sky Park in the UK and has the darkest skies in Europe because of its remote location. Elsewhere, there are three hundred square miles to explore, the 7Stanes trails beloved by mountain bikers, that Red Kite Trail (and a Red Deer Range). Drop into one of the visitor centres for armfuls of info and ideas: there are centres at Kirroughtree, Glentrool and Clatteringshaws. Also about, Castle Douglas, Galloway Activity Centre’s nearest town, has a growing (and apt) rep as Scotland’s food town: sample all sorts of fish, toffee (not together), game and other delicacies to see for yourself; you’ll be burning off hundreds of calories after all… Foodies can also go along to one of Castle Douglas’s regular food fairs, food weekends or chef masterclasses, and walk it all off with a trek around Threave Castle and its gardens or a circular hike from Castle Douglas around Carlingwark Loch. Film fan or feeling wicked? Dumfries and Galloway is where The Wicker Man was filmed and there’s now an annual festival as well as a Wicker Man trail from Kirkcudbright.