Awaking after a wonderful night’s sleep, I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos of the beautiful sunrise over Wigtown. I don’t think I could ever tire of looking out over this beautiful part of Scotland. Everyone should immediately add it to their Scotland itinerary. Heading downstairs, I joined everyone for a delicious breakfast prepared by Deb. I’m going to be in big trouble when I have to go off scrambled eggs and Scottish smoked salmon cold turkey at the end of this trip. Sheila, Candida, Luanne and I listened excitedly as Deb outlined our plans for the day. I was so excited that the day was to start with a visit to standing stones that I’m not sure I heard where else was planned. (Surely my second attempt at going through the stones would be more successful than the first? Practice makes perfect after all and even Roger took more than one try.) We all piled into my trusty little van and set out for our grand adventure.
The standing stones were called the Torhouse Stones and were located in a fenced off corner of a local pasture. The cows looked on in what appeared to be mild amusement at what I am sure they considered amusing human behavior for a Saturday morning. For the most part they stayed quiet and chewed their cud, at least until the farmer arrived! The minute the farmer arrived on his four-wheeler and let himself through the gate, the lowing and mooing commenced! Luckily, he didn’t seem put off by the crazy women being that near his cows. The girls and I just continued taking photos and trying our best to figure out how to get to Jamie. Luanne tried counting all the stones, Sheila and Deb tried patterns, and I finally decided maybe throwing myself across one might work. I’m pretty sure Candida was just sitting quietly and laughing at us. 😉
Finally accepting that no one was journeying through the stones today (how long is it until Samhain anyway?), we headed to our next destination, Sorbie Tower. Sorbie Tower was at one time a stronghold of the Hannay family. Now, their magnificent fortified tower is a beautiful stone shell that still hosts reunions and weddings. We had a lovely hour or so exploring all around the outside of the tower, but even Candida couldn’t figure a way inside .
After our morning’s adventure, hunger had definitely set in, so we adjourned to the Tea Room in Whithorn. There we munched our way through tea, lunch and sweet goodies. I had the Quiche of the day served with salad and a treacle scone with lemon curd and clotted cream all washed down with Whithorn Breakfast Blend tea. It was quite delicious. After lunch, we made our way through the medieval streets of Whithorn to the local museum.
Arriving at the museum, we admired all the traces of ancient life left behind from Whithorn’s earlier inhabitants. We admired Roman silver and carved Celtic stones. We also heard the story of St. Ninian, whose church here led to the later building of a monastery and cathedral and made Whithorn at one point a bustling community. We also really enjoyed our time with Colin, the docent for the exhibit of stone carvings. He told wonderful stories and even guided us through the crypt and ruins of the Whithorn Priory. It was a truly wonderful conclusion to our afternoon’s adventures.
Back at Hillcrest House we were in time to greet Tracey and her daughter fresh in from Australia and then Deb stuffed us with baked chicken, eggplant and chick pea curry and then we spent the rest of the evening again watching some special television. I’m already dreading leaving though. This has been such a special weekend. It never ceases to amaze me what special and wonderful people I continue to meet all because Diana wrote a book!
Up next, Candida and I journey back north past Glasgow to Pitlochry in further search for Outlander filming locations!
Slàn leat an-dràsta! (goodbye for now)
–Mandy
Great Scot! 
Great pictures. Now I know, what to expect next year. We had Withorn this year in planning, but we did’t make it, because a friend, who joined us, wanted to go to Ballantrae. 🙂
Thanks a lot.
Great pictures. Thanks for taking along with you as you enjoy your time in Scotland. Lovely pictures