4 Days exploring History & Heritage on the SWC300

Discover Wanlockhead’s 18th century lead mine where you will experience the thrill of going on the only underground mine tour in Scotland. Take a glimpse into the past by visiting the miners’ cottages and see how the miners and their families lived during the periods of 1750, 1850 & 1910. The Miners’ Library is one of three subscription libraries in Scotland set up by the Miners themselves. You can even try your hand at panning for gold!

If you like delving deep into history, soaking up the finest culture, exploring beautiful countryside – or adrenaline-fuelled mountain biking – you’ll love a day at Drumlanrig Castle and Country Estate. From activities for kids to salmon fishing, you’ll find a raft of activity awaiting you. The Castle has 120 rooms, 17 turrets and four towers and from your very first glance you’ll know you’re entering a special place. Special enough, in fact, that the producers of Outlander recently used the Castle for filming their second series! Please check opening times ahead of your visit, for much of the year, castle visits must be booked in advance.

Discover Sanquhar’s world famous knitting tradition and the story of the mines and miners of Sanquhar and Kirkconnel. What was it like to be a prisoner in Sanquhar jail? How did the ordinary people of Upper Nithsdale live and work in times past? All this and more can be found in the town’s fine 18th century tolbooth.

Robert Burns, Scotland’s National Bard, lived in Mauchline in one of his most productive periods and composed many of his much loved poems here. Whilst preparing for their move to Ellisland Farm in Dumfriesshire, Burns and his wife Jean Armour lodged in a room at what is now Burns House Museum.

With a dramatic clifftop setting, Robert Adam architecture, fascinating history & beautiful surrounds, Culzean Castle and Country Park is one of Scotland’s best days out. This glorious 260 ha estate was once the playground of David Kennedy, 10th Earl of Cassillis. The park is planted with conifers and beech, sculpted around miles of sandy coastline dotted with caves, and finished off with a Swan Pond, an ice house, flamboyant formal gardens and fruit-filled glasshouses.

Stranraer’s historic Old Town Hall, built in 1776, is the home of Stranraer Museum. Step inside and discover Wigtownshire’s fascinating past. See one of Scotland’s oldest ploughs, look at Victorian Wigtownshire in 3D photographs and investigate the collection through our museum trails

Tucked in a tranquil valley is one of Scotland’s best-preserved monasteries. A highlight is the magnificent chapter house, with its ornate windows and grotesque carvings. There is also a remarkable plumbing system that supplied the Cistercian monks with running water.

The Whithorn Trust runs the exhibition and museum detailing the town’s 1600 years of Christian history. Coffee and gift shop with locally sourced products.

Right in the heart of Kirkcudbright, a pretty artists’ colony on the Solway Firth, Broughton House is an 18th-century Georgian house and the former home of Scottish painter E A Hornel, one of the Glasgow Boys. The house holds Hornel’s pictures, vast collection of artefacts and furniture and has an beautiful garden.

Cross the River Dee by boat to visit this enchanting castle set on its own island. Rich with wildflowers in summer; you might see ospreys and otters hunting in the river.

A monument to human and divine love, Sweetheart Abbey was named for its founder, Lady Dervorgilla, who was buried here with the embalmed heart of her beloved husband. The abbey church, with a stone effigy of the founder, survives almost intact.

See a beautifully-restored village mill in action and learn about how oatmeal, a staple of the Scottish diet, was once made. A mill was probably built here by the monks of nearby Sweetheart Abbey, but parts of the present building probably date from the late 1700s.

It was in this simple sandstone house in a quiet Dumfries street that Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, spent the last years of his life. He died here in 1796 at the age of just thirty seven. The house shows us how the poet and his family lived in the late eighteenth century and is now a place of pilgrimage for Burns enthusiasts from around the world.

A treasure house of history in Dumfries and Galloway, Dumfries Museum tells the story of the land and people of the region. Look out for fossil footprints left by prehistoric animals, the wildlife of the Solway, tools and weapons of our earliest people, stone carvings by Scotland’s first Christians and the everyday things of the Victorian farm, workshop and home.

Caerlaverock Castle is the UK’s only triangular castle. With its wide moat, twin towered gatehouse and loft battlements, it is an awe-inspiring medieval stronghold.