Threave Castle

On Wednesday morning we took a walk along the Threave estate footpath with the aim of seeing Threave Castle.  It was a lovely walk through the countryside and nature always has wonderful surprises for you.  We came across a cow that must have recently gave birth to her calf as she was cleaning her as we walked by.  If we had been maybe 10-20 minutes earlier we might even have seen the birth (something I would have appreciated but DH was relieved not to have been there any earlier as he gets a little squeamish).

Further along we came across a collection of fungi growing on a fallen tree branch.

The walk to the castle was about two and a half miles.  The castle was the stronghold of the Black Douglases and built in the 14th century.  It lies in the River Dee and can only be accessed via boat.  

You have to ring a bell and the boatman comes across to take you over to the tower house/castle.  Unfortunately dogs are not allowed so we had to admire this impressive building which is the same height as a ten storey block of flats (30metres).

We then walked back to Castle Douglas where we found another dog friendly cafe called Street Lights.  We stopped for lunch and they even brought Max a doggy chew to enjoy while we had our lunch.  We then headed back to our B&B just before the skies opened and the rain came down for the first time since we had been there.

After a few hours of rain the sun came out again and we popped along to a shop called Enigma where we had seem some nautical themed wooden ducks which we had decided to buy and they would go in our newly decorated lounge.

Pirate Peter and Admiral Neil.  It turns out these ducks are made by a company called DCUK, the duck company which is based in Diptford, Totnes which isn't far from where we live.  We were also tempted to buy one of their Scottish cousins, they were wearing different coloured Tam o'shanters but we couldn't decide on which colour to have.  As we have now discovered we can buy them online we have plenty of time to decide if we will add to our duck family.

We also took another walk down to Carlingwark Loch where the swans seemed to be practising their synchronised swimming routine.