A Day In The Southwest Coast of Scotland

I adore the southwest coast of Scotland, on a hot sunny day you really do feel like you've been transported overseas, everything feels warmer there, the gulf stream means that Dumfries and Galloway is positively tropical when the sun shines, trees become palm trees, verdant plants flourish in the warm climate and everywhere you visit seems to have a calmer, slower, simpler way of life.

I'd escaped from life for a day with Harriet (yes, I know, we've fast become the female version of Ant and Dec) and of course Holly Bobbins, it was a bank holiday and when I'd checked the weather it instructed us to just go west to find the sunshine so that's what we did.

Kippford and Rockliffe are 2 small coastal villages right on the edge of the Solway estuary, this means soft sandy mud based beaches at Rockliffe and at Kippford, white beaches made entirely from shells, whole shells, cockle shells, a natural phenomena found on only a handful of beaches in the entire world.

I believe that Rockcliffe and Kippford could quite easily be the most beautiful villages I've ever visited and if you have your walking boots on there's a winding coastal path with a Mediterranean feel to it, unique pretty houses perched on top of cliffs with beautiful tumbling rock gardens filled with colourful azaleas and rhododendron brightly blooming on the cliff sides in the afternoon sunshine.

As the sun soaked into our suncream protected skin it felt more like Spain than Scotland and Harriet remarked that even the grass had a more Mediterranean look to it, I laughed but I think she may have been on to something.

In Kippford you'll find The Anchor Hotel, a homely pub, where dogs are welcomed inside and out, serving home cooked food with a plethora of choices.  I'd recommend the seafood platter or the burger, both looked amazing, oh and there's a Sundae I indulged in, I forget the name but if you go, you must try it, it was amazing, too large to finish but every mouthful was like heaven on a spoon.

In this short life that we have on earth some days are good days and some days are the days we remember forever, discovering the pure shell beach at Kippford and the beauty of Rockliffe, walking right out to the edge of the tide, watching Holly rolling around on the muddy beach with the waggiest happiest tail I've ever seen, these are the days that make me feel glad to be alive, glad to be freelance, glad to have made my life and work the best they could possibly be, life may not be perfect but it's full of love and wonder and travel and exploration and moments that make me feel glad to be alive.