South Scotland

This region combines the hills and valleys of the Southern Uplands – the Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway – with Ayrshire and the Isle of Arran to form a richly diverse area offering everything from high mountains to rolling moorland; rich farmland to long coastlines; historic towns and villages to castles and abbeys. Southern Scotland has it all!

The Southern Uplands, a range of open, rolling, heather-clad hills that runs for around 120 miles coast-to-coast across Scotland, dominates the region and is wonderful country to explore by car, bicycle or on foot.

A number of rivers have carved deep valleys through the hills and in these can me found the famous mediaeval Border towns of Melrose, Jedburgh, Kelso and Dryburgh, each with its own ruined abbey. The English Border might not be far away but no part of Scotland is more patriotically Scottish than this, the area that produced Sir Walter Scott.

Further west, the hills and moors of Dumfries & Galloway are equally wild, remote and beautiful. The Galloway Forest Park is Britain’s first “Dark Sky Park”, and over 7,000 stars can be seen with the naked eye on a clear night.

To the south lies the Solway Firth, an area of mudflats and marshes and home to a very varied wildlife, and lying between the two is a coastal plain of rich farmland fringed by numerous deep bays and inlets with a scattering of pretty, historic towns such as Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Gatehouse of Fleet and Wigton.

The rolling farmland of Ayrshire lies to the north, its coast lined with long beaches, resort towns and famous golf courses.  Ayrshire is the heart of “Burns Country”, where Scotland’s bard was born, raised and lived for most of his life, and there are numerous Burns sites for you to enjoy.  

Finally, offshore in the Firth of Clyde lies the Isle of Arran, “Scotland in Miniature”, a stunningly beautiful island with magnificent mountain scenery, small farms, a picturesque coastline that includes Lamlash and Brodick Bays, and a host of activities.