Cairnsmore of Fleet National Nature Reserve and Pool of Ness

Our next trip while we were staying in Dumfries was to Cairnsmore of Fleet, a beautiful upland national nature reserve, which is managed by Scottish National Heritage.

The scenery here is spectacular

and there is plenty of wildlife to see! One of the stars of the show is the gold ringed dragonfly, a large, easily identified insect that isn't shy of having its photo taken 

Again we saw lots of butterflies, including lots of peacocks

and painted ladies 

but also the much rarer Scotch Argus

Plenty of birds around too, including ravens.

 Some very handsome sheep too

On the way back to Dumfries, we noticed a signpost down to Pool of Ness, which we thought looked interesting. What a lovely little spot it turned out to be too, though it's a steep and muddy path to get there!