I don’t normally look at weather forecasts as I don’t like to be disappointed in advance! Yesterday however we took a peek and knew we’d be fine until 2pm when the rain would arrive. We headed off to Whithorn to visit St Ninian’s cave. We’d read on trip advisor that the mile walk to the cave was the highlight and took you through a farm, beautiful woodland and then along a stream to the pebbled beach. The reviews weren’t wrong and the dogs were in their element jumping across the little stream and having a good sniff everywhere.
Pookie enjoyed looking up at the trees from his vantage point on his daddy’s back and kicked him on whenever he got too slow or stopped (a nice little habit he’s acquired). We reached the beach after a little while and headed to the cave across the large smooth flat pebbles. If the sea hadn’t been so rough we could’ve skimmed every one.
The cave itself was a little disappointing. If there was a list of rules for what defines a cave I’m not sure this fault in the cliff would quite qualify. Nevertheless it has been a place of pilgrimage for many years as apparently ancient carvings were found there from the time of St. Ninian. We couldn’t see any ancient carvings but people have scratched their names into the rock, left small crosses made from sticks, stuffed coins into cracks in the rock and written messages on pebbles and placed them on ledges in the cave. We scratched Pookie’s name and the date onto a pebble and left it there too before heading back to the car.
13:58 and the rain began…pretty good forecasting if you ask me!
Last night we got Pookie ready for bed, pumped up some tyres, popped him in his pushchair (we’re not purists, we do own one!) and had a stroll down to the village and around the harbour until the little man was asleep. Date night! A couple of glasses of wine for me and a few pints of ale for him before the steep climb back up the hill to our little caravan.
This morning I was lucky enough to have a lie in (I think I needed it) before I woke up to a cup of tea and a fried egg sandwich (I definitely needed that!). After a relatively lazy start to the day we drove the short journey to Glenwhan Gardens, a mixture of fabulous plants, flowers and trees and stunning lakes full of lily pads, koi and trout surrounded by the wild moorland it was cultivated from only 30 years ago by Tessa Knot. We could’ve easily spent the day there wandering the grassy paths around the lakes and up to the view points where we saw spectacular views of Luce Bay and the Mull of Galloway. Well worth the £5 entry fee.
We’re hoping the weather holds out until the end of tomorrow when we’re hoping to walk to a secluded bay to recreate a photo we took this time last year when Pookie was only a few months old. Fingers crossed!
The Little Patch 