Books, buzzards & muddy boots

From the hotel in Castle Douglas we headed to Wigtown for a mosey round the Farmer's market. We got diverted by The Bookshop in the 200yds from the car to the market - Wigtown is, after all, Scotland's book town.

The Bookshop is wonderful, we spent ages browsing the shelves & considered it a lucky escape when we got out without buying half the stock. (We did liberate a few of the better looking ones). After that the farmers market was a bit of a disappointment, we didn't see many farmers! There was a rather nice bookstall & we liberated a few more books from there. A heavy rain shower sent us scuttling into a few more shops before we drove up to Wood of Cree via Torhouse Stone Circle.

On our way back to Castle Douglas this evening we stopped off at Carsluith Castle, Marrbury Smokehouse, Cairn Holy, and Carlingwark Loch.

Late dinner, bottle of wine and collapse - phew, fab day!

This is Wood of Cree, an ancient oak woodland on the River Cree. We walked a circular route to the waterfalls and back down to the main river. This is where we saw the buzzards and got muddy boots. The oaks here have been coppiced since the 17th century, & have tall, straight trunks, unlike the solitary ancient oaks I'm used to.