The Machars Peninsula is the perfect place to get away from it all and unwind from the stresses and strains of modern life. Sparsely populated with rolling green hills and scattered woodland and more than 40 miles of varied coastline from rugged cliffs to sandy beaches, the Machars is a little like stepping back in time to a gentler and quieter way of life. The only traffic jams here are caused by the occasional sheep in the road or cows being herded from one field to another!

The mud-flats at Wigtown , Scotland’s picturesque National Book Town offers the chance to view the many species of birds that come here including thousands of wild geese wintering on the salt marshes in what is Britain’s largest Local Nature Reserve. A viewing room in the imposing gothic County Buildings offers magnificent views over Wigtown Bay whilst visiting Ospreys can also be seen from here on a CCTV link. With its range of small book shops, the town is also a mecca for book lovers. 

 Just outside Wigtown is the pretty hamlet of Bladnoch with its whisky distillery perched on the banks of the River Bladnoch. A single malt distillery and one of six remaining Lowland distilleries in Scotland, Bladnoch also has a visitor centre. Down the coast from Wigtown to the pretty fishing village of Garlieston a plaque commemorating the testing of the Mulberry Harbours used in the Normandy Landings can be seen. From here the coastline rises to form dramatic cliffs as it passes the ruins of Cruggleton Castle, dropping a little at Portyerrock Bay and the Isle of Whithorn and rising again at Burrow Head (where the climax of classic cult film The Wicker Man was filmed).

The Isle of Whithorn is a delightful village with views across to the Isle of Man and the Cumbria coast on a clear day. Two miles inland is historic Whithorn , the location of the first recorded Christian church in Scotland built by Saint Ninian about 397. A museum close to the late-medieval cathedral Whithorn Priory contains finds from a major archaeological dig of the site. A late-medieval gateway with the arms of the King of Scots leads into the site of the priory.Past the southern tip of the peninsula, the shoreline leaves Wigtown Bay and becomes part of Luce Bay. 

The cliffs continue as far as the beautiful sandy beach at Monreith (childhood home of the author Gavin Maxwell) and on past Port William. There are a number of large lochs in the area including Mochrum Loch, Castle Loch and the White Loch of Myrton as well as several prehistoric remains, mainly standing stones and cup and ring marks the most notable of which are Torhousekie stone circle and Drumtroddan standing stones.