Auchenlarie Holiday Park

Trad fans, pop fans, bibliophiles and foodies can indulge their passions easily in the area: many local pubs have regular traditional music sessions and the region has a good handful of festivals of all flavours including the Wigtown Book Festival and Stranraer Oyster Festival. On the music front, tap your foot at the Galloway and Portpatrick folk festivals, both easy to get to from Auchenlarie, or go along to one of the folk clubs which meet regularly in Dalbeattie and Stranraer. By day, dander around the rest of Dumfries and Galloway for a range of things to do like coastal strolling around Wigtown and Luce Bay, fishing, championship golf courses and blossoming at the county’s public gardens and their exotic specimens flourishing in Galloway’s mild climate. Logan Botanic Garden on the Rhins of Galloway is filled with southern hemisphere plants and palm trees; take a hike up the park’s hill afterwards for views to take your breath away over the Rhins to the Galloway Hills. Red deer, wild goats and red kites are a few sights to see in nearby Galloway Forest Park to the north of Auchenlarie, Britain’s biggest forest park at 300 square miles, and with forest trails, lochside cycle paths, wildlife centres, horse-riding and mountain biking all to hand/hoof. The 24-mile Red Kite Trail around Loch Ken is level enough for cycling and has six outdoor viewing points, four hides and a visitor centre with CCTV open in summer; if you’d like to look skywards by night, Galloway Forest Park is the only Dark Sky Park in the UK and one of only four in the world. Dazzle your little darlings at the award-winning Creetown Gem Rock Museum, a jewel of an attraction near Newton Stuart with gemstones, crystals, rocks and fossils on display, interactive exhibits and the glow of the Crystal Cave. It’s one of several museums in Dumfries and Galloway including the Museum Newton Stewart, telling the history of the county, and the Robert Burns Centre in Dumfries, telling the story of the bard. To see historical sights on site, there are castles, abbeys and vintage buildings all around, such as Cardoness, Carsluith and Threave castles, Dundrennan Abbey, the motes of Mark and Urr, and towers at Drumcoltran and Orchardton.