Sunday 27 August 2017

Back from Dumfries

We're just back from a lovely break in Dumfries in the south west of Scotland. It's one of our favourite places for a holiday as there is so much to see and do. We travelled there by bus and then hired a car, as it's not an easy region to get round by public transport. This trip we visited a number of places we'd never visited before and saw lots if interesting wildlife, including more butterflies than I've ever seen anywhere!

We stayed at our favourite hotel Friars Carse,


which is set in it's own extensive grounds, home to cattle, lots of bunnies (though inexplicably we have no photos of any of the many rabbits we saw!) and a small flock of guinea fowl. The grounds  include lovely wooded walks along the river, which is home to kingfishers and Daubenton's bats, which come out in early evening and fly low over the water. (We sat by the river for a while every evening to watch the bats).





There's unfortunately a lot of Himalayan Balsam here at this time of year. This invasive non-native plant crowds out other summer plants (though spring plants can still do well when it's around) and can undermine riverbanks. I personally don't like it because it smells horrible. It is however very pretty

and the bees love it



I'll blog about our various day trips over the next few days!












4 comments:

sage said...

Looks like a lovely place to vacation. Invasive plants can be beautiful but bring problems as they push out native ones and often don't have predators to keep them contained.

eileeninmd said...

Hello, it is a beautiful place for a getaway! Lovely scenes and photos. Happy Sunday, enjoy your day and the new week ahead!

Anonymous said...

very nice - would love to stay in a place like that

Lowcarb team member said...

Looks a fabulous place to enjoy a holiday.
Good to see your photos - look forward to more!

All the best Jan