Our first visit to Scotland. Stranraer trip: Day 1 Threave Garden and arriving at Dunragit

Arriving in Scotland after 12 hours on the road

 

A car full of bears and luggage (and Miss T too!)

I have no idea why it's taken over 4 months to get around to writing up about our amazing little break to Scotland last November. Especially as I'd even made notes at the time but such is the craziness of life I suppose. 

Throughout 2020 and 2021, we'd had 3 planned breaks cancelled and whilst we were glad to be able to stay safe at home with the pandemic, we had got to the point where we were "armchair travelling" on an almost daily basis dreaming about where we would love to travel to. 

I would wish for hot sunny far flung places, whilst Miss T would ALWAYS say, I want to go to Scotland. So I couldn't believe my luck when I heard about House of Holidays travel agent who had a competition running on Facebook, and I won a short break in a cottage near Stranraer in Scotland. It was like Miss T's wish had come true! 

Now if it was non-Covid times, then we would have broken up a long drive like that with an overnight stay but to reduce risk, we decided to travel through the night and do it as one long journey with some rest breaks instead of a full overnight stay. 

So we set off on Sunday evening with the aim of getting to Scotland on Monday morning. A straight drive was predicted to take 8 hours but we knew it would be longer once we included stopping at services to refuel the car, loo breaks and to rest en route too. So it was 12 hours later that we actually cross the border into stunning Scotland. 

We could see within moments just how beautiful Scotland is and we immediately knew that we wanted to visit again for longer in future. But for this occasion, we were going to make the most of our 3 nights and 4 days staying in the most fantastic holiday accommodation. 

Laura from House of Holidays had organised everything brilliantly, even giving us tips on nearby places to visit. She'd been in touch to say that the property owners were upgrading our stay from The Dairy to the larger accommodation called The Coo Shed which was really kind of them as it meant that the kids would have their own space. 

The Dairy is newly renovated and sleeps between 2 and 4 people (king size bed, and sofa bed) and a newly installed hottub outdoors. The Coo Shed is a bigger property with 3 bedrooms - a king size bed downstairs, a twin room with ensuite and an upstairs king size bed and ensuite.  This property also benefits from a covered outdoor hottub. I love hot tubs and it's often something that is make or break when it comes to deciding which holiday cottage to book. 

Both cottages are amazing! So would highly recommend a stay at either of them. For us, it was absolutely perfect to have the bigger cottage with the covered outdoor hottub. 

Back to day one's activities...despite the heavy rain overnight making driving conditions really tricky, this morning was sunny and we stopped at Castle Douglas on our way to Stranraer. We went to the Scottish National Trust place called Threave gardens. We were pleased to find that we could get free entry with our National Trust membership. The grounds were beautiful and looking very autumnal with a blanket of gold leaves beneath many of the trees as well as shades of red, orange, brown and green in the gardens. 

 

We were incredibly excited when Miss T spotted a red squirrel! Though he did look like he was a bit stuck in his feeding box at one point... but he was fine actually...

 

We still had plenty of snacks with us in the car so didn't stop for food at the café on this occasion though it did seem like a fabulous place for a bite to eat and we were very impressed with all the covid regulations in place in Scotland to help keep us all safe. 

 As we drove on towards Stranraer, our tiredness began to kick in again, so we found a beautiful little parking layby overlooking the estuary and rested - both me and Richard managed to sleep a short while while the kids entertained themselves with their gadgets as they had slept better overnight. 

We'd received a message from Laura saying that our accommodation was going to be ready earlier than planned. When travelling with kids and having driven such a long way, that gesture meant a lot. 

So we arrived and unpacked and awaited our ASDA grocery delivery that I'd booked ahead of time ready for arrival day. 

One of the first things I check whenever we arrive for a break anywhere, are the beds. I always need to find the firmest bed for my back pain. And I was thrilled to find the beds are of superb quality so they looked very promising for a good night's sleep.

It may only be our first day but I can't praise this accommodation highly enough already... it also has microwave, dishwasher, washing machine and even a toastie maker. 

 And as if the hot tub wasn't enough of a wow feature you can also admire the cows on this working farm from the living room window! It's totally awesome seeing the cows peering in at us whilst we relax in front of the tv in the evening. And whilst on the topic of wow, we were also welcomed with a tray of delicious bakes and potato scones - AMAZING and very much appreciated after our long journey.